f. 


jT 


Crnttnarg  lBBtt(on 

THE    RIGHTS    OF    MAN 
IN    AMERICA 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 
IN  AMERICA 

BY 

THEODORE   PARKER 


EDITED    WITH    A    PREFACE 
BY 

F.  B.  SANBORN 


BOSTON 
AMERICAN  UNITARIAN   ASSOCIATION 

25  BEACON  STREET 


V~     I 


COPYRIGHT,  1911 
AMERICAN  UNITARIAN  ASSOCIATION 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

In  editing  this  volume  in  the  long  series  of  Theo 
dore  Parker's  writings,  the  present  writer  has  some 
advantage  over  the  editors  of  previous  volumes. 
With  two  exceptions,  Wentworth  Higginson  and 
Rufus  Leighton,  they  had  no  special  acquaintance 
with  the  man,  Parker;  their  knowledge  of  him  is  de 
rived  from  books  or  from  hearsay;  to  some  extent 
from  his  biographies.  But  I  knew  the  man  person 
ally  for  six  or  eight  years,  and  for  most  of  that  time 
was  in  close  and  often  daily  intimacy  with  him.  After 
years  of  this  intimacy,  he  selected  me,  one  of  the 
youngest  of  his  hearers  and  associates,  as  his  literary 
executor, —  an  office  which  circumstances  elsewhere  ex 
plained,  forbade  me  to  perform.  When,  therefore,  I 
have  heard  him  described  with  cool  misunderstanding, 
or  evident  prejudice,  I  have  had  only  to  recur  to  the 
memory  of  my  long  association  with  him,  to  correct  the 
false  impressions  thus  conveyed  by  persons  who  never 
knew  him.  Especially  is  this  true  of  his  relation  to 
the  national  sin  and  curse,  negro  slavery,  against 
which  every  great  and  wise  American  protested  by 
voice  or  example,  and  which  no  truly  sagacious  fel 
low-countryman  ever  defended  for  any  length  of  time. 
Many  good  men  apologized  for  it,  some  who,  like  Jef 
ferson,  portrayed  with  searching  acuteness  its  evils 
and  dangers,  may  afterwards  have  seemed  to  excuse 
it ;  but  only  because  they  could  not  see  the  way  clearly 
to  its  abolition  in  their  day. 

With  Parker  the  course  of  opinion  and  action,  as 
with  Emerson,  was  the  reverse  of  this.  Called,  as  both 


242258 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

these  leaders  of  opinion  were  primarily,  to  other  du 
ties  in  the  work  of  social  reform,  they  were  at  first 
averse  to  engaging  warmly  in  a  political  contest. 
Both  were  originally  of  the  party  which  called  itself 
"  Whig,"  and  of  which  the  leaders  were  John  Quincy 
Adams,  Henry  Clay,  Daniel  Webster  and  Abraham 
Lincoln;  and  in  Massachusetts  this  party  declared 
itself  in  1838  (when  Parker  was  a  young  and  obscure 
Unitarian  pastor),  as  opposed  to  negro  slavery,  and 
in  favor  of  its  removal  by  national  legislation.  This 
fact  has  been  forgotten  or  overlooked  in  the  flood  of 
subsequent  events,  and  the  recession  of  some  eminent 
Whigs  from  the  position  then  officially  taken.  But  in 
March,  1852,  Henry  Wilson,  who  in  1838  was  one  of 
the  younger  Whigs,  as  Parker  was,  told  the  story  in  a 
speech  in  the  State  Senate  (replying  to  my  old  friend 
Judge  Warren),  which  is  worth  quoting:  — 

"In  1838  Judge  Warren  represented  Bristol  county 
in  this  Senate.  A  series  of  resolutions  was  reported  here 
by  James  C.  Alvord,  declaring  that  Congress  has  ( 1 )  \ 
the  power  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  territories;  (2)  the 
power  to  abolish  the  slave-trade  in  the  District  of  Co 
lumbia,,  and  ought  to  exercise  that  power;  (3)  the  power 
to  abolish  the  slave-trade  between  the  States,  and  ought 
to  exercise  it;  (4)  the  power  to  prevent  the  admission  of 
any  more  slave  States,  and  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  Dis 
trict,  and  ought  to  exercise  both  powers.  Judge  War 
ren  himself  moved  the  resolution  for  emancipation  in  the 
District  of  Columbia,  in  the  following  words, — '  That 
Congress  ought  to  take  measures  to  effect  the  abolition 
of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia.'  These  resolu 
tions,  pledging  Massachusetts  and  the  Whig  party  to  the 
agitation  of  the  slavery  question  were  passed  by  the 
unanimous  vote  of  this  Senate.  Finding  the  Whig  party 
committed  to  the  cause  of  liberty  by  these  resolutions, 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

I  joined  the  ranks  of  that  party,  and  voted  with  them  in 
the  election  of  1838." 


Wilson    was   then   twenty-six, 

and  they  voted  together  as  Whigs.  In  1852 
they  were  still  together  as  political  anti-slavery 
men  ;  while  Warren,  Webster,  Choate  and  other  party 

•"_ii_jrry-"~ 

leaders  had  changed  their  ground  entirely  and  were 
supporting  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  and  trying  to  sup 
press  all  discussion  of  slavery  as  a  national  sin.  J£ar 
kerjjiowever,  does  not  seem  to  have  preached  specific- 
ally  against  negro  slavery  un^il  1841.  and  in  184S 
he  declined,  for  special  reasons,  to  join  in  the  excite 
ment  occasioned  by  the  effort  to  send  Latimer,  a  fugi 
tive  slave,  back  into  bondage.  It  was  not  that  he 
hated  slavery  less,  but  that  other  questions  interested 
him  more.  JELis  .anti-slavery  life  had  four  distinct 
phases,  —  the  genera.!  disgust  at  slavery  which  most 
of  the  Massachusetts  Whigs  had,  from  1838  to  1844,— 
the  special  opposition  to  Texas  annexation  and  the 

to  185£,  —  the  movement 


against  the  execution  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  from 
1850  to  1855,  —  and  finally,  the  movement  to  protect 
Kansas  from  the  curse  of  slavery,,  to  render  Judge 
Dred  Scott  decision  inoperative, 


and  to  support  John  Brown's  active  warfare  against 
slavery  in  Missouri  and  Virginia.  The  chapters  in 
this  volume,  and  in  that  edited  by  Mr.  Hosmer,  relate 
to  all  these  phases  of  the  great  dispute,  but  particu 
larly  to  the  last  three.  Parker  regarded  the  last  stajge 
of  the  fourth  phase,-  —  tKe^_John~  JBrgjpn-wnrfTirrt  fltl 
Jbhe  most  important  of  kil,—  -  forhe  did  not  live  to 
see  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War,  except  as  com 
menced  in  its  preliminary  skirmishes  jn_  .  Kansas-ami 
Missouri.  On  all  these  phases  I  shall  have  something 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

to  say ;  having  discussed  them  for  years  with  Parker 
and  his  intimate  friends,  and  heard  them  debated  by 
others  at  his  house  in  Exeter  Place  and  elsewhere. 
Before  commenting  on  particular  chapters  in  this  vol 
ume,  a  few  general  remarks  should  be  made  to  correct 
false  impressions  and  loose  statements  concerning  £#x- 
ker's  position  in  the  long  warfare  against  slavery  of 
which  he  predicted  the  end  by  emancipation,  during 
the  nineteenth  century, —  one  of  the  few  who  ventured 
to  make  that  confident  prophecy  before  1860. 

Theodore  Parker  was  IICVLI*  a  (li>uuiunist ;  nor  were 
John  Brown,  Gerrit  Smith,  Dr.  Howe  or  the  present 
wrriter.  Their  friends  sometimes  advocated  disunion, 
as  Garrison,  Wendell  Phillips,  and  for  a  short  time 
Wentworth  Higginson  did.  In  writing  to  Higginson, 
who  had  signed  a  call  for  a  meeting  at  Worcester  to 
debate  disunion,  Parker  thus  declared  himself  (Jan 
uary  18,  1857): 

"  I  am  glad  to  see  any  sign  of  manhood  in  the  North. 
But  I  do  not  myself  desire  a  dissolution  of  the  Union. 
The  North  is  17,000,000  strong,  and  the  South  contains 
11,000,000,  whereof  four  are  slaves  and  four  millions 
are  '  poor  whites.'  I  don't  think  it  quite  right  for  the 
powerful  North  to  back  out  of  the  Union,  and  leave  the 
'  poor  whites  '  and  the  slaves  to  their  present  condition, 
with  the  ghastly  consequences  which  are  sure  to  follow. 
Men  talk  a  great  deal  about  the  '  compromises  of  the 
Constitution,'  but  forget  the  guarantees  of  the  Constitu 
tion.  '  The  United  States  shall  guarantee  a  republican 
form  of  government  to  every  State.'  I  would  perform 
that  obligation  before  I  dissolved  the  Union.  .  .  . 
But  if  you  will  make  dissolution  the  basis  of  agitation,  I 
think  much  good  will  come  of  it.  I  would  say,  Freedom 
shall  take  and  keep  (1)  the  land  east  of  Chesapeake 
Bay;  (2)  all  that  is  north  of  the  Potomac  and  the  Ohio, 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

—  all  that  is  west  of  the  Mississippi,  that  is,  the  entire 
States  of  Missouri,  Arkansas  and  Texas,  with  the  part 
of  Louisiana  west  of  the  Mississippi.  I  think  the  North 
will  not  be  content  with  less  than  this;  nay,  I  am  not 
sure  that,  in  case  of  actual  separation,  Virginia  and 
Kentucky  would  not  beg  us  to  let  the  amputating  knife 
go  clear  down  to  North  Carolina  and  Tennessee  and  cut 
there;  for  I  think  there  is  too  much  freedom  yet  in  the 
northernmost  slave  States,  to  consent  to  be  left  to  perish 
with  the  general  rot  of  the  slave  limbs." 

In  opposition  to  the  Texas  scheme  to  extend  the 
area  of  slavery,  and  to  the  needless  Mexican  War, 
Webster  and  Parker  were  for  some  years  side  by  side, 
I  have  seen  the  manuscript  in  Webster's  own  hand, 
which  he  wrote  for  the  anti-Texas  convention  in  Jan 
uary,  1845,  and  of  which,  in  the  speech  just  quoted, 
Henry  Wilson  renders  this  account: 

"  In  the  winter  of  1845,  when  the  Texas  question  was 
pending  before  Congress,  a  State  convention  was  called 
in  Faneuil  Hall,  without  party  distinction.  Mr.  Webster 
united  in  the  convention  with  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  Ed 
ward  Quincy,  Joshua  Leavitt,  Mr.  Sewall,  Charles  Allen, 
John  G.  Palfrey,  Stephen  C.  Phillips,  Charles  Francis 
Adams.  Mr.  Webster  consulted  with  and  assisted 
Stephen  C.  Phillips,  Charles  Allen  and  Charles  Francis 
Adams,  in  preparing  the  address  of  convention — an  ad 
dress  filled  with  noble  sentiments  of  hostility  to  slavery 
domination.  The  day  I  left  Boston  for  the  Whig  conven 
tion  of  1848,  I  met  in  Court  Street  one  of  Mr.  Webster's 
friends,  who  informed  me  that  several  of  those  friends 
were  assembled  in  Mr.  Webster's  office  and  were  anxious 
to  see  me.  I  accompanied  him  to  the  office  where  I  found 
various  members  of  the  Webster  Club,  among  them  Mr. 
Burlingame  and  Mr.  Webster's  son.  They  wished  to 
know  what  I  and  the  '  conscience  Whigs,'  with  whom  I 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

y 

acted,  intended  to  do.  I  told  them  I  had  written  to  Mr. 
Webster,  that  I  could  not  vote  for  Mr.  Webster  if  he  used 
his  influence  directly  or  indirectly  to  aid  Taylor's  nomi 
nation.  These  gentlemen  assured  me  that  Mr.  Webster 
had  said  that  he  '  would  never  recommend  the  people  to 
support  for  President  an  ignorant,  swearing,  frontier  col 
onel  ' —  they  assured  me  '  Mr.  Webster  was  with  us.' 

"  I  left  the  office  and  went  directly  to  Philadelphia 
where  I  found  a  note  from  Mr.  Webster,  giving  me  am 
ple  assurances.  Having  received  assurance  from  Mr. 
Webster,  I  voted  for  him;  although  I  knew  then  as  now, 
that  his  chances  were  desperate. 

"In  1848,  Gen.  Taylor  was  nominated  as  the  Whig 
candidate  for  President  on  the  9th  of  June;  on  the  28th 
one  of  the  largest  conventions  ever  assembled  in  Massa 
chusetts  met  at  Worcester.  There  and  then  the  organiza 
tion  of  the  Free-soil  party  was  begun,  and  their  principles 
were  proclaimed.  Many  of  Mr.  Webster's  friends  at 
tended  —  among  them  his  son.  They  urged  us  to  speak 
kindly  of  Mr.  Webster,  assuring  us  that  he  was  with  us. 
The  convention  expressed  confidence  in  him,  and  called 
upon  him  to  lead  the  friends  of  freedom.  A  few  days 
after  I  called  on  Mr.  Webster  at  his  own  request,  at  his 
office.  He  expressed  his  cordial  assent  to  the  principles 
of  the  convention,  and  said  if  we  would  make  a  public 
sentiment  that  would  sustain  public  men  in  being  true  to 
the  sentiments  of  the  North,  we  should  accomplish  every 
thing,  for  we  had  always  been  beaten  by  the  treachery 
of  Northern  men." 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  events  here  related  by 
Mr.  Wilson  did  occur.  I  remember  them  well,  as  they 
were  then  reported  in  the  newspapers;  and  it  was  be 
lieved  for  months  that  Webster  would  not  support  the 
nomination  of  Taylor,  which  he  bad  declared  to  be 
"  a  nomination  not  fit  to  be  made."  Why  he  changed 
his  mind  may  be  matter  of  opinion  and  dispute ;  but 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

those  at  the  time  who  knew  Mr.  Webster's  habit  of  re 
ceiving  money  in  connection  with  his  political  course, 
had  much  reason  to  believe  that  it  was  in  the  interest 
of  his  pocket  and  his  political  ambition  that  he  added 
his  own  example  to  the  long  list  of  what  he  called 
"  the  treachery  of  Northern  men." 

Taylor  was  elected,  but,  contrary  to  the  expectation 
of  his  slaveholding  supporters,  he  refused  to  be  a 
party  to  any  schemes  for  disunion.  The  occasion  is 
well  known,  and  the  words  of  President  Taylor  have 
been  quoted  by  three  persons  to  whom  he  uttered  them, 
—  Hamlin  of  Maine,  then  a  Democrat ;  Thurlow  Weed 
of  New  York,  a  Whig,  and  Gen.  Pleasonton,  an  army 
officer  who  had  served  under  Taylor  in  Mexico. 
The  last-named  called  on  his  chief,  then  President, 
late  in  June,  1850,  when  under  orders  to  join  the  army 
in  New  Mexico.  Then  followed  these  remarks  by 
Taylor: 

"  I  am  glad  you  are  going  to  New  Mexico;  I  want 
officers  of  judgment  and  experience  there.  These  South 
ern  men  in  Congress  are  trying  to  bring  on  civil  war. 
They  are  now  organizing  a  military  force  in  Texas,  for 
the  purpose  of  taking  possession  of  New  Mexico  and  an 
nexing  it  to  Texas.  I  have  ordered  the  troops  in  New 
Mexico  to  be  reinforced,  and  have  directed  that  no  armed 
force  from  Texas  be  permitted  to  go  into  that  territory. 
Tell  Colonel  Monroe  there  that  he  has  my  full  confidence ; 
and  if  he  has  not  force  enough  to  support  him/'  (his 
features  assuming  the  firmest  expression)  "  I  will  be  with 
you  myself.  I  will  be  there  before  those  people  shall 
go  into  that  country,  or  have  a  foot  of  that  territory.  The 
whole  business  is  infamous,  and  must  be  put  down." 

About  the  same  time,  Senator  Hamlin,  having  oc 
casion  to  call  on  the  President,  met  Stephens,  after- 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

wards  vice-president  of  the  Southern  Confederacy, 
and  Toombs  of  Georgia,  coming  out  of  the  President's 
room,  much  excited.  Entering  himself,  he  found 
Taylor  pacing  up  and  down,  "  like  an  enraged  lion 
in  his  cage."  Still  pacing  across  the  room,  he  said, 
"  lyir.  Hamlin,  what  are  you  doing  in  the  Senate  with 
that  bill?"  The  senator  replied,  that  the  pro-slavery 
bill  was  wrong  in  principle,  and  that  lie  was  doing 
what  he  could  to  defeat  it.  To  which  the  President 
instantly  rejoined:  "  Stand  firm  !  don't  yield!  it  means 
disunion ;  and  I  am  pained  to  learn  that  we  have  dis 
union  men  to  contend  with.  Disunion  is  treason ;  and 
if  they  try  to  carry  out  their  schemes  while  I  am  Pres 
ident,  they  shall  be  dealt  with  as  by  law  they  deserve, 
and  be  executed." 

As  Mr.  Hamlin  came  down  the  steps  of  the  White 
House,  he  met  Mr.  Weed  going  in  and  told  him  he 
would  find  the  President  much  excited.  Mr.  Weed 
had  just  before  met  Stephens,  Toombs  and  Clingman 
of  North  Carolina,  coming  away  from  their  interview. 
As  he  entered  the  room,  Gen.  Taylor  said  to  him, — 
"  Did  you  meet  those  damned  traitors?  They  came 
to  talk  with  me  about  my  policy,  and  when  I  told  them 
I  would  approve  any  constitutional  bill  Congress  might 
pass,  and  would  execute  the  laws,  they  began  to 
threaten  a  dissolution  of  the  Union." 

He  further  said  that  he  told  those  disunionists, 
that,  if  necessary,  he  would  take  command  of  the  Union 
army  in  person,  and  if  they  were  themselves  taken  in 
rebellion,  he  would  hang  them  with  less  reluctance 
than  he  had  seen  deserters  and  spies  hanged  in  Mexico. 
Becoming  less  agitated,  the  old  soldier  told  his  friend 
Weed  that  these  traitors  presumed  on  his  being  a 
Kentuckian  and  a  slaveholder;  that  before  he  looked 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

into  the  question  as  chief  magistrate  he  had  expressed 
opinions  to  his  son-in-law,  Jefferson  Davis,  that  he  was 
ready  to  stand  with  the  South  in  maintaining  all  the 
guarantees  of  the  Constitution.  But  now,  having 
looked  carefully  into  the  merits  of  the  long-standing 
controversy,  he  had  found  that  the  exactions  and  aims 
of  the  South  were  intolerant  and  revolutionary.  He 
added  that  Davis  seemed  to  be  the  chief  conspirator 
in  the  scheme  which  Toombs,  Stephens  and  Clingman 
(all  claiming  to  be  Whigs)  had  revealed  to  him.  This 
was  more  than  ten  years  before  Davis  became  the 
leader  of  the  rebellion  which,  in  1850,  Taylor  had 
told  them  he  would  put  down  by  arms,  as  Lincoln 
afterward  did. 

Where  then  did  Daniel  Webster  stand  in  this  well- 
known  conspiracy  of  Davis  and  the  disunionists  of 
1850?  He  had,  three  months  before,  given  in  his  ad 
hesion  to  the  permanence  of  slavery,  in  his  famous 
speech  of  March  7,  and  he  was  soon  to  become  part  of 
the  administration  of  the  slavery-protecting  Fillmore, 
who  succeeded  to  the  Presidency  by  the  untimely  death 
of  Taylor  in  July.  In  the  same  month  of  1850  Web 
ster  became  the  Secretary  of  State  under  President 
Fillmore,  and  lent  his  aid  in  that  position  to  the  advo 
cates  of  slavery,  while  still  professing,  as  he  had  elo 
quently  declared  many  times  in  his  earlier  career,  that 
he  regarded  slavery  as  wrong,  and  would  gladly  see 
it  abolished.  But  while  making  these  professions, 
largely  from  the  force  of  habit  (as  he  continued  to 
indulge  too  freely  in  the  use  of  ardent  spirits,  for  the 
same  habitual  reason),  all  his  influence  was  given  to 
the  support  of  the  slaveholders'  policy.  Under  the 
administration  of  which  he  was  the  most  distinguished 
and  the  ablest  member,  fugitive  slaves  were  captured, 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

kidnapped  and  returned  to  slavery  from  Pennsylva 
nia,  Ohio  and  Massachusetts.  He  went  about  th£ 
country  lecturing  in  favor  of  the  Compromises  of 
st$5<V  and  denouncing-  both  the  abolitionists,  and  the 
higher  law,  which  they  had  declared  was  sure  to  pre 
vail,  and  ought  to  prevail.  Webster  denied  that  there 
is  any  law  higher  than  the  statutes  of  men;  and  he 
carried  on  at  the  same  time,  through  his  many  friends, 
an  active  campaign  for  the  Presidency,  but  could  never 
secure  the  confidence  of  the  people  sufficiently  to  war 
rant  them  in  giving  him  their  highest  elective  office, 
the  Presidency. 

All  through  the  remaining  two  years  of  his  ever  busy 
life,  he  spent  his  energies  in  maintaining  the  institu 
tion  of  negro  slavery  where  it  already  existed, —  the 
same  serfdom  he  had  spent  the  more  active  years  of 
his  life  in  denouncing.  The  change  of  opinion  was 
so  marked  and  so  extreme  that  it  is  no  wonder  people 
were  surprised  at  the  betrayal  of  the  mission  they  had 
confided  to  him,  and  revolted  rather  than  to  follow 
him  in  his  crooked  course.  At  the  first  opportunity 
they  voted  against  Webster's  friends,  and  their  repre 
sentatives  in  the  next  year,  elected  Charles  Sumner  to 
fill  Webster's  seat  in  the  Senate.  Webster  survived 
this  rejection  of  him  by  Massachusetts  a  little  more 
than  a  year,  and  died  too  early  to  cast  his  ballot  for 
his  lifelong  political  opponent,  Franklin  Pierce, — 
having  already  abandoned  his  own  Whig  party  because 
it  did  not  sufficiently  oppose  emancipation  and  favor 
the  extension  of  negro  slavery. 

In  what  Parker  said  publicly  and  privately  of  Web 
ster,  and  the  men  who  clustered  round  him  and  ap 
plauded  the  unhappy  and  disgraceful  last  years  of  his 
disappointed  life,  he  had  the  facts  all  about  him,  and 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

within  his  daily  observation.  He  left  little  to  infer 
ence,  and  he  withheld  from  his  public  utterances  much 
that  was  privately  known  to  him.  He  had  grown  up 
in  admiration  of  Webster,  had  often  listened  to  his 
grander  passages  of  oratory,  and  seen  him  manage 
his  cases  in  court  with  that  mixture  of  ability  and  ar 
rogance  which  had  from  the  first  made  him  noted  in 
his  prosecutions,  defenses  and  general  practice  at  the 
bar.  Parker  had  hoped  much  from  him  in  the  great 
est  of  all  his  cases,  the  contest  over  negro  slavery  be 
tween  the  North  and  the  South, —  between  the  ideas  of 
Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire,  and  the  selfish 
institutions  of  South  Carolina  and  the  later  Virginia. 
Even  in  1848,  when  the  presidential  election  threw 
Webster  for  a  few  months  out  of  relation  with  his  own 
political  party,  as  had  been  the  case  in  1841-43,  when 
a  member  of  Tyler's  Cabinet, —  Parker,HkeB-jjiany 
anti-slavery  men,  hoped  and  trustecPthat  the  most 
powerful  oratory  in  New  England  would  be  on  the 
side  of  freedom,  as,  up  to  that  time  Webster's  had 
been,  at  least  nominally.  He  had  never,  as  Everett 
had  done  in  1826,  volunteered  a  defense  of  slavery, 
nor  quoted  Scripture  in  its  favor;  he  had  resisted 
strenuously  the  secessionist  movement  of  Calhoun  and 
Hayne  in  Carolina,  and  with  full  knowledge  that  be 
hind  that  frustrated  effort  lay  the  determination  of 
the  slavemasters  to  extend  and  strengthen  the  area  of 
negro  slavery.  But  in  1849  the  temptations  of  money 
and  power  were  too  much  for  his  feeble  moral  sense, 
long  weakened  by  habits  of  self-indulgence  and  pe 
cuniary  recklessness.  He  opposed  the  honest  soldierly 
determination  of  Taylor  as  President,  to  follow  Jack 
son's  course  in  dealing  with  disunion ;  he  had  surren 
dered  to  the  South,  after  parleying  for  months,  in  his 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

7th  of  March  speech,  and  he  soon  became  the  most  vio 
lent  denouncer  of  the  practical  anti-slavery  men,  as 
well  as  of  the  few  disunionist  abolitionists.  Contrary 
to  his  natural  character,  which  was  arrogant  rather 
than  crafty,  with  flashes  of  generosit}-  which  endeared 
him  to  his  friends,  Webster  now  stooped  to  duplicity. 
He  had  consulted  (as  Henry  Wilson  says,  and  as  Mr. 
Giddings  of  Ohio  wrote  to  Parker  in  a  letter  now  in  my 
possession)  "  with  J.  R.  Giddings,  Thaddeus  Ste 
vens,  and  other  anti-slavery  members  of  Congress, 
touching  his  course  of  action ;  had  given  them  to  un 
derstand  that  he  would  sustain  by  speech  and  vote  their 
doctrine  of  opposition  to  slavery  extension  and  dom 
ination,  and  had  received  assurances  from  them  that 
they  would  gladly  follow  his  lead."  Mr.  Giddings 
adds,  "  He  even  submitted  the  skeleton  of  his-  speech 
to  the  inspection  of  one  or  more  leaders  of  that  party, 
who  pronounced  it  satisfactory."  Mr.  Giddings  was 
himself  one  of  the  leaders,  and  spoke  from  positive 
knowledge.  Dr.  Henry  Ingersoll  Bowditch,  a  well- 
known  Boston  physician  of  high  standing,  says  in  his 
autobiography : 

"  At  the  time  of  preparing  his  7th  of  March  speech, 
Webster  wrote  to  his  intimate  friend,  J.  T.  Stevenson,  to 
know  how  far  he  could  go  '  in  behalf  of  freedom  and  be 
sustained  by  the  North.'  The  reply  was  '  Take  the  high 
est  ground  in  behalf  of  freedom.'  When  the  hour  came 
for  Mr.  Webster  to  speak,  Stevenson  said  to  my  brother, 
J.  I.  Bowditch,  at  his  office  in  State  Street,  '  Oh,  how 
Webster  is  giving  it  now  to  Southern  insolence !  '  So  en 
tirely  had  Webster  deceived  and  wheedled  even  his  best 
friends." 

The  correspondence  with  Stevenson  was  known  to 
Parker  at  the  time  through  Miss  Hannah  Stevenson, 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

his  sister,  who  was  then  an  inmate  of  the  household  at 
Exeter  Place.  It  was  indeed  the  common  talk  of 
Boston,  where  the  speech,  in  its  final  half,  pledging 
Webster's  support  to  slave-hunting  at  the  North, 
shocked  and  disgusted  many  of  his  own  friends.  _The 
Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  which  Mason  of  Virginia  had  in 
troduced  by  way  of  menace  and  experiment,  rather 
than  with  the  expectation  of  passing  it,  was  carried 
through  both,  houses,  largely  by  Webster's  influence^ 
— ion-be  was  thejx_S.ecretary  of  State  under  Fillmore, 
and  his  successor  in  the  Senate,  R.  C.  Winthrop,  voted 
against  the  bill.  Neither  Webster  nor  Clay  voted  for 
it,  and  twenty-one  senators,  including  Benton  of  Mis 
souri,  abstained  from  voting.  When  Horace  Greeley, 
soon  after  (according  to  Clay's  grandson,  in  the 
latest  biography  of  that  statesman)  remonstrated  with 
his  political  leader  against  "  the  asperities  of  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law,"  Clay  said  he  "  sincerely  regret 
ted  them,  and  would  have  fought  to  exclude  them,  if 
he  had  not  been  absent  at  Newport  when  the  bill  was 
passed  by  the  Senate." 

At  first  the  new  slave-hunting  law  was  coldly  re 
ceived  in  Boston  —  even  by  the  friends  of  Webster 
and  the  pro-slavery  Democrats,  like  Judge  Woodbury 
and  Hallett.  The  first  slave-catchers  who  appeared  in 
Boston  under  Mr.  Webster's  law  were  two  low  char 
acters  from  Macon  in  Georgia,  John  Knight  and 
William  Hughes, —  the  first  a  mechanic  or  "  poor 
white,"  and  the  other  the  jailer  at  Macon.  They  ar 
rived  in  Boston  just  about  a  month  after  the  passage 
of  the  bill,  which  was  September  19,  1850.  Giving 
an  angry  account  of  his  attempt  and  its  failure, 
Hughes  wrote  in  the  Macon  Telegraph  the  following 
December  as  follows: 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

"  I  reached  Boston  the  19th  day  of  October.  I  began 
operations  within  ten  minutes,  as  soon  as  I  could  find  the 
gentleman  to  whom  I  carried  letters.  I  called  on  Judge 
Woodbury,  who  advised  me  to  see  Mr.  (George)  Lunt, 
U.  S.  district  attorney;  whom  I  should  pronounce  to 
be  a  disgrace  to  his  country,  his  profession  and  his  of 
fice;  for  he  deliberately  stated  to  me  as  a  reason  for  de 
clining,  that  he  had  a  recent  case,  and  the  excitement  was 
so  great  that  he  would  not  undertake  another.  .  .  . 
My  next  visit  was  to  Mr.  B.  F.  Hallett,  another  United 
States  commissioner,  and  this  legal  phenomenon  replied 
that  the  law  did  not  authorize  the  warrants  to  be  issued, 
and  that  it  was  my  duty  to  arrest  the  negroes  without  a 
warrant,  and  bring  them  before  him.  ...  I  may  mis 
construe  his  character;  some  of  my  friends  seem  to  think 
Mr.  Hallett  a  happy  combination  of  the  knave  and  fool. 
.  My  next  visit  was  to  Judge  (Peleg)  Sprague, 
another  judge  on  the  supreme  bench.  This  personage 
strongly  reminded  me  of  the  celebrated  Dutch  judge  who 
would  never  hear  but  one  side  of  a  case,  because  the  two 
sides  always  confused  him.  Here  we  had  re-enacted  the 
same  tortuous,  twisting,  shuffling,  contemptible  evasion  of 
a  poor  pettifogging  lawyer,  and  it  makes  me  wonder  by 
what  legerdemain  so  poor  a  creature  was  placed  in  an 
honorable  and  responsible  office.  I  next  turned  my  face 
on  Mr.  Curtis,  another  commissioner,  and  a  worthy  Bos- 
tonian;  who,  from  a  slowness  of  comprehension  or  a  want 
of  familiarity  with  his  duties,  desired  time  to  conquer  this 
abstruse  and  difficult  subject.  After  great  unnecessary 
delay,  those  judges  and  commissioners,  who  had  refused 
to  issue  the  warrants  because  they  were  not  the  proper 
persons,  did  meet  and  issue  them  in  open  court.  .  . 
The  judges,  in  my  opinion,  soil  the  ermine  with  an  in 
famy  as  deep,  as  damnable  and  as  durable  as  ever  stained 
the  name  of  Jeffreys.  As  for  the  commissioners,  they 
want  only  opportunity  to  become  notable  and  famous 
Dogberries.  .  .  .  Could  I  have  obtained  the  warrants 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

(which  honorable  officials  would  have  issued)  I  think  it 
not  only  probable,  but  very  certain  I  could  have  been  more 
than  half  way  to  Georgia  before  a  mob  could  have  inter 
fered.  .  .  .  By  great  secrecy  and  despatch  I  could 
have  stolen  the  negroes  from  Boston.  But  I  could  have 
stolen  them  j  ust  as  well  before  the  '  Slave  Bill '  as  after, — 
and  probably  a  little  better.  This  bill  was  to  prevent  the 
necessity  of  stealing  our  own  property.  ...  In  Bos 
ton  the  law  cannot  be  executed  by  the  public  authorities, 
and  a  man  must  recover  his  own  by  stealing, —  and  that 
before  they  can  find  him  out, —  or,  probably,  murder  him 
in  open  day." 

Without  approving  the  language  of  this  Georgian's 
statement,  I  must  say  it  was  in  substance  true,  so  great 
was  the  abhorrence  of  the  Bostonians  to  slave-catching 
in  their  free  city.  This,  with  a  little  party-fencing 
between  Woodbury  and  Hallett,  Democrats,  and  Lunt 
and  Curtis,  Webster  Whigs,  accounts  for  the  reluc 
tance  of  these  four  worthies  to  mix  themselves  up  with 
a  slave  case. 

Now  who  were  these  despised  "  niggers "  whom 
Hughes  and  Knight  had  come  a  thousand  miles  to 
kidnap,  under  cover  of  Webster's  "  Slave  Bill"?  As 
it  happened,  they  were  parishioners  of  Theodore  Par 
ker,  and  as  it  also  happens,  I  knew  them  some  fifteen 
years  after,  when  they  returned  to  Boston  from  Eng 
land,  where  Parker  and  his  friends  had  sent  them, 
in  order  to  keep  them  out  of  the  hands  of  Mr.  Web 
ster's  friends  in  Boston.  They  were  handsome  and 
every  way  respectable  colored  persons,  largely  of 
white  blood, —  William  and  Ellen  Craft  by  name,— 
who  had  earned  their  right  to  freedom  if  any  Algerian 
captive  or  Dartmoor-prisoned  New  England  sailor 
ever  did,  by  a  daring  and  successful  flight.  No  man 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

or  woman  with  a  human  heart,  who  knew  their  ro 
mantic  story,  ever  begrudged  them  their  well-earned 
liberty  ;  the  ignorant  and  the  knavish  alone  turn  slave- 
hunters  for  such  as  these  two.  Ellen  was  so  nearly 
white, —  her  parentage  being  what  my  friend  Hosmer 
defines  as  "  an  evil  out  of  which  good  may  come," — 
that  in  her  journey  of  four  days  from  Macon  to 
Philadelphia  she  passed  successfully  as  a  young  slave 
holder  traveling  North  with  his  body-servant  (her 
husband).  William  had  bought  his  own  freedom  over 
and  over,  by  the  wages  he  had  paid  his  master,  who 
seems  to  have  been  a  Dr.  Robert  Collins,  and  had 
earned  the  money  for  it  by  working  along  with  the 
"  poor  white,"  John  Knight,  in  a  Macon  cabinet  shop. 
He  was  pursuing  the  same  honest  calling  in  a  Boston 
shop,  and  supporting  his  family  by  his  labor.  I  now 
quote  from  the  Journal  of  Parker  for  1850,  which  lies 
before  me: 

"(Saturday,  Oct.  26.)  It  seems  a  miserable  fellow  by 
the  name  of  Knight  came  here  to  Boston  from  Macon  in 
Georgia,  sent  out  by  the  former  owner  of  the  Crafts.  He 
used  to  work  in  the  cabinet  shop  with  William,  but  was 
dull  and  imbecile,  so  that  his  chief  function  was  to  wait 
upon  the  rest.  There  came  with  him  one  Mr.  Hughes, 
who  is  the  jailer  at  Macon.  Last  Tuesday,  the  22nd, 
Knight  called  on  Craft  at  his  shop,  expressed  pleasure  to 
see  him,  etc.  Craft  asked  him  if  he  came  on  alone. 
'  Yes,  there's  nobody  with  me/  But  he  wanted  William 
to  go  round  with  him,  to  show  him  the  streets  and  the 
curiosities  of  Boston.  No, —  William  was  on  his  guard, — 
was  '  busy,'  '  had  work  to  attend  to  '  and  could  not  go 
The  next  day  he  came  again;  wanted  William  to  go  round 
the  Common  with  him.  No,  he  could  not  go  then.  Told 
William,  '  Perhaps  you  would  like  to  come  to  the 
United  States  Hotel  and  see  me;  your  wife  might  like  to 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

come  also,  to  talk  about  her  mother.     If  you  will  write, 
I  will  take  the  letter  home." 

All  this  time  Hughes  was  at  the  hotel  under  the 
false  name  of  William  Hamilton,  by  which  he  regis 
tered,  and  was  described  in  the  warrant  which  the  four 
reluctancies  had  finally  issued.  William  declined  to 
call  at  the  hotel,  or  to  write  the  decoy  letter.  Knight 
then  wrote  as  follows: 

"Boston,  Oct.  22,  1850,  11  o'clk.  P.  M. 

"  Win.  Craft  —  Sir  —  I  have  to  leave  so  Eirley  in  the 
moring  that  I  could  not  call  according  to  promis,  so  if 
you  want  me  to  carry  a  letter  home  with  me,  you  must 
bring  it  to  the  united  States  Hotel,  to  morrow,  and  leave 
it  in  Box  44,  or  come  yourself  to  morro  Eavening  after 
tea  and  bring  it.  let  me  no  if  you  come  yourself  by 
sending  a  note  to  Box  44  U.  S.  Hotel,  so  that  I  may 
no  whether  to  wate  after  tea  or  not,  by  the  Bearer.  If 
your  wif  wants  to  see  me  you  cold  bring  her  with  you 
if  you  come  yourself.  JOHN  KNIGHT. 

"  P.  S.  I  shall  leave  for  home  eirley  a  Thursday 
moring." 

Parker's  Journal  goes  on: 

"  The  lad  who  brought  the  letter  informed  William  of 
the  other  person  who  came  with  him  (Knight),  told  his 
name,  etc. 

"  Finding  this  failed,  Hughes  applied  to  the  court  and 
got  a  warrant.  ...  I  saw  William  Craft  this  morn 
ing  about  a  quarter  past  eleven.  He  was  at  Lewis  Hay- 
den's  (a  fugitive  from  Kentucky),  seemed  cool  and  reso 
lute.  I  told  him  I  thought  it  no  use  to  put  the  matter 
off,  and  cut  off  the  dog's  tail  by  inches.  If  he  was  to 
take  the  bull  by  the  horns,  he  had  better  do  it  to-day 
rather  than  to-morrow.  So  he  thought.  I  inspected  his 
arms,  a  good  revolver  with  six  caps  on,  a  large  pistol, 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

and  small  ones;  a  large  dirk  and  a  short  one.     All  was 
right. 

"  Meeting  of  the  Legal  Committee  of  the  Vigilance 
Committee  at  half-past  twelve.  Richard  H.  Dana,  Jr., 
in  the  chair.  Writs  are  out  against  Knight  and  Hughes, 
—  one  for  slander  against  Craft,  one  for  carrying  dan 
gerous  weapons  with  intent  to  commit  an  assault  on  Craft. 
Also  a  habeas  corpus  is  ready  for  William  in  case  of 
need.  But  I  think  he  has  a  non  habeas  corpus  in  his 
pocket. 

"  Went  out  in  the  afternoon  to  Brookline,  and  saw 
Ellen  Craft.  She  is  now  at  Ellis  Gray  Loring's.  She 
seems  composed,  and  we  assured  her  that  her  husband 
would  not  be  carried  off. 

"(Monday,  Oct.  28.)  Went  down  to  the  U.  S.  Hotel 
at  half-past  seven  to  see  the  slave-hunters.  Bowditch 
breakfasted  with  them,  but  they  slipped  off  and  we  could 
not  catch  them  again.  Heard  that  Ellen  Craft  was  at 
the  table  at  Loring's;  so  went  out  to  Brookline  in  a 
coach  with  Miss  Stevenson  and  (Rev.)  John  Parkman. 
Went  to  Loring's;  Ellen  not  there;  to  (Samuel)  Phil- 
brick's;  found  her  and  William.  Brought  them  into 
town.  I  wanted  Ellen  to  stay  with  us  till  all  is  safe  and 
slave-hunters  crushed.  The  Vigilance  Committee  is  in 
permanent  session.  We  met  at  seven  p.  M.  again.  Sent 
a  committee  of  twelve  with  Robert  E.  Apthorp  as  chair 
man,  to  see  Spooner,  keeper  of  the  U.  S.  Hotel.  He 
says  the  slave-hunters  are  satisfied  they  cannot  arrest 
Craft  or  carry  him  off.  (Tuesday,  29th.)  (Charles) 
Sumner  and  Apthorp  have  both  seen  Spooner  to-day.  He 
was  much  impressed  by  the  other  committee  on  Monday 
night.  (Francis)  Jackson  and  (C.  F.)  Hovey  saw  him  on 
Sunday  night.  Lobdell,  a  baker  and  treasurer  of  the  ho 
tel,  told  Jackson  he  would  '  carry  out  the  law  if  it  was  to 
apply  to  my  own  daughter.'  No  doubt;  perhaps  it  does. 
But  suppose  it  came  to  his  dividends, —  ce  serait  autre 
chose." 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

So  the  campaign  went  on  till  on  Wednesday  after 
noon,  at  2 :30  P.  M.,  the  slave-hunters  took  the  New 
York  train  at  Newton  and  returned  to  Georgia. 
Knight,  who  was  incapable  of  writing  it,  signed  a 
statement  dated  at  Macon,  November  11,  in  which  he 
seemed  to  say: 

"  Mr.  Hughes  applied  to  three  separate  commission 
ers,,  who  sent  him  from  one  to  another.  The  last  one 
refused  till  he  could  get  all  the  judges  and  commissioners 
together.  In  this  way  the  business  was  deferred  until 
Thursday  night  (Oct.  24),  when  the  meeting  was  held. 
At  this  our  business  and  the  names  of  the  parties  for 
whom  the  warrant  was  demanded  leaked  out.  Friday 
morning  Judge  Woodbury  issued  the  warrant  about  nine 
o'clock,  in  open  court.  It  was  at  once  known,  and  the 
negroes  and  abolitionists  began  to  assemble  about  the 
court-house  and  to  watch  us.  Every  few  minutes  a  negro 
lawyer  would  peep  into  the  marshal's  office  to  see  what 
was  going  on.  The  excitement  was  great;  nothing  was 
done;  marshal  said  if  he  could  be  convinced  that  Craft 
was  in  Cambridge  Street,  he  would  go  and  arrest  him; 
but  seemed  timid  and  inclined  to  back  out." 

As  this  marshal  was  then  Charles  Devens,  after 
wards  a  Civil  War  general,  judge  of  the  State  Supreme 
Court,  and  member  of  President  Hayes's  cabinet,  ti 
midity  could  hardly  be  alleged  of  him ;  but  he  knew  he 
was  in  a  base  business,  and  was  very  glad  when  he 
got  out  of  it  after  Webster's  death,  and  had  for  a  suc 
cessor  Watson  Freeman,  one  of  whose  last  official  acts 
was  trying  to  get  paid  for  a  night-attempt  to  kidnap 
me  in  my  own  house  at  Concord,  and  carry  me  to 
Washington  to  testify  before  Senator  Mason's  com 
mittee,  in  April,  1860.  He  was  as  unlucky  then  as 
he  had  been  lucky  in  carrying  Antony  Burns  off  from 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

Boston  in  June,  1854, —  an  achievement  instantly  fol 
lowed  at  the  November  election  by  the  defeat  and 
disintegration  of  Webster's  Whig  party  in  Massa 
chusetts.  Knight,  the  "  poor  white,"  went  on : 

"  Wednesday,  Oct.  30,  very  early,  Rev.  Theodore 
Parker  came  to  our  room,  followed  by  fifty  or  sixty  per 
sons,  greatly  excited;  said  he  had  suppressed  a  mob 
twice, —  came  as  a  Christian,  a  servant  of  the  Lord,  and 
a  friend,  to  request  us  to  leave  the  city  instantly;  not  to 
wait  for  the  cars,  but  to  take  a  carriage;  did  not  think 
he  could  suppress  the  mob  any  longer.  We  refused;  told 
him  that  we  should  treat  the  committee  with  perfect  con 
tempt;  would  leave  when  the  mob  dispersed  and  our  con 
venience  suited,  but  not  before.  In  the  evening  came  to 
New  York,  by  advice  of  counsel,  in  order  to  get  further 
instructions,  and  to  allow  the  excitement  to  die  away. 
During  this  time  Craft  and  wife  were  reported  to  be 
locked  up  in  the  house  of  a  white  man,  whose  name  I 
forget." 

(It  was,  of  course,  Parker's  four-story  house  in 
Exeter  Place,  hardly  a  good  rifle-shot  from  the  hotel 
where  these  actors  in  Webster's  fugitive-slave  drama 
were  going  through  the  prologue  to  its  six  years'  per 
formance.  ) 

William  Craft's  fellow-workman  at  Macon,  exalted 
by  his  experiences  into  a  sage  forecaster  of  the  next 
few  years  in  Boston,  then  delivered  himself  thus  in  the 
Macon  newspaper: 

"  I  am  convinced  that  public  opinion  in  Boston  is  un 
dergoing  a  change.  It  is  true  the  abolitionists  and 
negroes  are  very  numerous,  and  apparently  have  things 
very  much  their  own  way  at  present.  The  business  men 
and  men  of  property  with  whom  I  conversed,  generally 
took  but  little  interest  in  the  matter;  but  said  the  law 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

ought  to  be  executed,  that  they  wished  to  get  rid  of  the 
negroes,  and  that,  if  it  came  to  a  trial  of  strength,  the 
negroes  and  abolitionists  would  be  put  down.  This, 
however,  will  take  time.  I  believe  that  Mr.  Hughes  will 
ultimately  succeed  in  getting  the  negroes." 

On  November  7,  Parker  remarried  these  brave 
fugitives,  at  a  boarding  house.  His  record  says : 

"Married  William  and  Ellen  Craft;  they  are  fugitive 
slaves;  their  history  is  well  known;  they  have  long  been 
married.  But  their  marriage  lacks  the  solemnity  of  law; 
so  yesterday  they  got  a  certificate,  and  this  day  I  married 
them.  I  told  him  his  duty  was  to  protect  the  life,  liberty 
and  limbs  of  his  wife,  at  all  manly  hazards;  that  he  was 
to  do  it  though  it  dug  his  own  grave,  and  the  graves  of 
a  thousand  men.  Still  I  counseled  mildness  and  Chris 
tian  feelings,  but  by  all  means  liberty.  After  the  mar 
riage  I  put  a  short  dagger  in  his  hands,  as  a  symbol 
of  one  kind  of  work,  and  a  Bible  as  a  symbol  of  another 
sort  of  work.  I  gave  him  the  Bible  with  the  record  of 
his  marriage.  At  half-past  two  P.  M.  this  day,  they  are 
to  go  to  Portland  (by  rail)  and  at  night  take  a  steamer 
for  St.  Johns,  then  a  steamer  for  Windsor,  stages  to 
Halifax,  and  then  the  steamer  for  England.  So  I  am 
obliged  to  send  my  parishioners  to  that  country  for  free 
dom,  whence  our  fathers  fled  for  it." 

Parker  never  saw  Ellen  Craft  again  until  the  sum 
mer  of  1859,  when,  passing  through  England  on  his 
way  to  meet  Sumner  in  Paris,  he  and  his  family  were 
called  upon  by  her  in  London,  where  they  were  receiv 
ing  the  calls  and  hospitalities  of  John  Bright,  of  Mar- 
tineau,  of  Frances  Power  Cobbe,  of  Thoreau's  ad 
mirer,  Thomas  Cholmondeley,  and  hosts  of  friends, 
old  and  new.  No  visit  gave  him  greater  pleasure  than 
bers ;  and  he  noticed,  as  I  did,  six  or  eight  years  later, 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

when  the  Crafts  returned  to  Boston,  that  a  few  years 
of  freedom  had  done  more  for  the  education  and  civ 
ilization  of  their  race  than  two  centuries  of  "  civiliz 
ing  "  slavery. 

The  next  fugitive  slave  case  in  Boston  was  more 
provoking  to  Webster  and  his  slave-hunting  friends, 
there  and  in  Washington;  but  not  a  whit  more  suc 
cessful.  A  poor  fellow  named  Shadrach  was  laid  hold 
of  the  next  winter  by  Marshal  Devens,  about  February 
15,  shut  up  for  safe-keeping  in  the  court-house  in 
Court  Square,  and  was  about  to  be  delivered  over  to 
the  slave-catchers  by  George  T.  Curtis,  the  slave-law 
commissioner,  when  a  few  negroes  moved  a  sudden 
stay  of  proceedings,  and  Shadrach  found  himself  that 
night  at  my  neighbor  Bigelow's  in  Concord,  on  his 
way  to  Leominster,  and  thence  to  Canada.  That  part 
of  his  story  is  told  in  the  Life  of  Dr.  Howe  by  Mrs. 
Richards ;  he  was  aided  with  carriages  and  drivers  by 
some  white  friends ;  but  the  actual  rescue  is  related  by 
Dr.  Bowditch,  in  a  manner  I  have  never  heard  dis 
puted.  He  says: 

"  The  news  came  to  a  poor,  but  quiet,  industrious 
negro,  working  for  my  friend  John  L.  Emmons,  that  the 
boy  who  had  grown  up  under  his  own  eye  at  Norfolk, 
Va.,  and  who,  like  himself,  had  fled  from  slavery,  had 
been  arrested,  and  was  then  before  Commissioner  Curtis. 
The  hour,  as  he  told  me,  had  come:  he  was  doomed  to 
rescue  his  friend  or  die.  Accordingly,  being  faithful  in 
all  things,  he  said  to  his  master  that  he  felt  he  must  go 
and  see  if  the  story  was  true.  Emmons  bade  him  God 
speed,  and  the  truth  was  soon  proved  by  sight;  he  saw  his 
friend  seated  between  two  officers.  He  returned  and  said 
to  his  master,  '  Farewell, —  you  may  never  see  me  again,' 
and  returned  to  the  court-house.  He  found  a  number 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

around  the  door;  they  were  laughing  and  jeering,  and 
his  heart  sank  within  him.  '  My  friends,'  said  he,  '  this 
is  not  the  time  for  laughing  or  talking,  but  for  acting; 
will  you  follow  me  and  rescue  him  ?  '  '  Wait  a  little,' 
said  they.  *  So  it  has  always  been  with  you;  now  is  the 
time.  Let  us  go.'  Finally  he  succeeded  in  getting  two 
or  three  to  promise  to  follow;  yet  they  had  no  plans. 
They  had,  however,  a  leader  who  was  quiet  and  calm 
and  full  of  faith ;  unarmed,  he  felt  that  he  was  to  lose  his 
life  or  rescue  his  friend;  the  means  would  come  as  he 
wanted  them.  At  length  the  court  was  adjourned  till 
Monday,  and  the  slave  remanded  to  the  custody  of  the 
deputy  marshal,  Pat  Riley.  The  company  was  about  de 
parting;  one  of  the  lawyers  was  leaving,  when  the  door 
was  suddenly  burst  open,  and  in  rushed  the  negroes  in 
numbers,  our  friend  taking  the  lead.  Riley  seized  him 
and  two  more  fell  upon  him.  They  wrestled  together; 
the  negro  was  victorious,  and  seeing  the  marshal's  sword 
lying  in  a  chair,  he  drew  it,  and,  beckoning  to  the  pris 
oner  said,  '  Fly,  this  moment ! '  The  poor  wretch  stood 
motionless,  his  knees  quivering.  '  Depart, —  go  this  way,' 
motioning  with  the  sword,  and  keeping  off  the  officers 
with  it.  '  Give  me  my  sword,'  said  the  marshal.  '  Stand 
off ! '  said  our  hero,  again  waving  off  his  antagonists. 
Others  having  come  to  the  rescue,  Shadrach  was  dragged 
into  liberty  by  his  victorious  friends.  Our  poor  hero  was 
the  last  to  leave  the  room,  and  finally  got  his  young  friend 
down  into  Court  Square.  Then  leaving  him  in  the  care 
of  friends,  he  quietly  entered  a  neighboring  shop,  laid 
the  sword  on  the  counter,  and  asked  the  man  to  let  it 
remain  until  called  for  by  its  owner.  Then  he  followed 
the  crowd,  saw  Shadrach  safely  out  of  town,  and  quickly 
returned  to  work  as  if  nothing  had  happened.  I  saw  the 
man  this  evening.  We  hired  a  cab,  and  now  he  is  out  of 
reach  of  the  tools  of  the  diabolical  Fugitive  Slave  Law." 

This  view  of  the  case  was  naturally  not  that  taken 
by  Pat  Riley,  by  George  Lunt,  the  district  attorney, 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

nor  entirely  by  Charles  Devens.  Riley  appealed  to 
the  public  through  the  newspapers,  and  blamed  the 
city  mayor  and  city  marshal  for  not  bringing  the  po 
lice  to  his  aid,  when  he  was  vanquished  by  his  own 
sword.  The  Boston  Courier,  quoting  Riley,  went  on 
to  say: 

"  The  rescue  was  at  a  time  when  more  than  forty  city 
policemen  were  assembled  in  Marshal  Tukey's  office,  not 
a  hundred  paces  from  the  scene  of  riot.  That  Mr.  Riley 
did  all  that  he  could  to  execute  the  law,  nobody  will  deny. 
His  defense,  when  attacked  by  the  mob,  was  as  able  as 
his  circumscribed  means  would  permit.  Had  the  rioters 
who  assembled  near  the  court-house  been  driven  away 
by  the  chief  of  police,  this  outrage  upon  the  laws  would 
not  have  been  perpetrated  on  Saturday." 

President  Fillmore  and  his  secretary,  Webster,  took 
care  that  Marshal  Tukey  was  in  his  duty  at  the  next 
slave-catching,  in  the  following  April, —  that  of 
Thomas  Sims,  sufficiently  described  in  the  copious  text 
of  Parker;  and  they  called  in  United  States  soldiers 
to  force  the  odious  statute  upon  the  freemen  of  Mas 
sachusetts.  By  force  and  in  contempt  of  constitu 
tional  law,  Sims  was  carried  away  into  slavery  on 
April  19,  1851.  The  next  ™*jl  fr*  ^HilV1  j?f 
Charles  Simmer,  which  had  been  delayed  for  three 
months  by  the  friends  of  slavery,  was  completed,  and 
he  was  sent  to  take  Webster's  place  in  the  Senate  at 
Washington,  with  more  than  Webster's  influence,  and 
by  a  life  tenure ;  for  he  died  in  that  office  thirty-three 
years  afterward,  and  there  witnessed  and  helped  bring 
about  the  complete  abolition  of  negro  slavery.  In  this 
election,  and  in  the  support  of  Sumner  so  long  as 
Parker  lived,  the  Boston  preacher  had  great  influ 
ence  ;  and  it  was  his  friends  and  Sumner's  friends  who 
emancipated  the  slave. 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

JParker*s  sermon  on  Webster,  though  violently  at 
tacked  by  that  statesman's  personal  and  political 
friends,  was  approved  in  its  substance  by  the  more 
impartial  among  his  contemporaries.  Perhaps  the 
most  significant  among  the  comments  which  it  called 
forth  at  the  time  (the  late  autumn  of  1852)  were  the 
letter  of  Senator  Seward  in  that  year  TDec.  27,  1852) 
and  that  of  an  older  Whig,  James  Kent,  the  son  of 
Chancellor  Kent,  six  years  later.  Mr.  Seward  said: 

"  Webster  never  rose  to  the  moral  majesty  of  Milton 
or  Burke, —  lacking  the  moral  quality  suited  to  his  intel 
lectual  greatness.  .  .  .  While  he  was  for  '  Union  and 
Liberty,'  he  was  for  Union  more  than  for  Liberty.  So  he 
was  a  statesman  for  Britain  rather  than  for  our  country; 
for  the  past  rather  than  for  our  own  times.  Beyond  all 
doubt,  his  great  infirmity  was  timidity.  His  great  of 
fense  was  not  his  surrender  of  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  nor 
even  his  supporting  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  but  his  at 
tempt  to  suppress  and  silence  debate  and  speech  on  slav 
ery;  yet  his  greatest  offense  was  timidity.  I  give  you 
my  sincere  thanks  for  the  copy  of  your  sermon  on  the 
death  of  Webster.  I  am  sure  that  all  the  world  will  agree 
that  it  is  executed  with  a  masterly  force,  and  with  a 
severe  study  of  truth  and  justice." 

Judge  Kent  was  more  specific  in  his  comment  on 
the  sermon, —  all  the  more  noteworthy  because  he  was, 
like  Webster  in  his  youth,  a  member  of  the  old  Fed 
eral  party  of  Napoleon's  time,  and,  like  Webster,  soon 
joined,  or  naturally  adopted  the  creed  of  that  Hamil- 
tonian  party.  But  before  quoting  his  searching  anal 
ysis  of  Webster's  character  and  abilities,  I  will  give 
the  statement  of  Dr.  J.  G.  Palfrey,  eminent  as  clergy 
man,  congressman  and  historian,  on  receiving  (March 
81,  1853)  Parker's  Webster  sermon: 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

"  I  have  taken  time  to  read  your  masterly  discourse  on 
Mr.  Webster,  and  have  read  it  with  new  admiration  of 
your  powers  of  analysis,  of  expression  and  illustration; 
of  your  freedom  in  exhibiting  a  morbid  anatomy,  and  your 
generous  feeling  for  what  was  lovable  and  pitiable  in 
your  subject.  You,  with  others  of  your  time,  are  incor 
porating  a  new  era  in  biography.  It  will  assume  a  vastly 
more  beneficent  function  than  heretofore.  It  will  be  made 
immensely  to  serve  the  cause  of  humanity,  by  enforcing 
upon  the  weak  and  wicked  great  a  restraining  sense  of  the 
doom  which  an  earthly  futurity  is  to  pronounce." 

Judge  Kent,  of  Fishkill,  N.  Y.,  to  whom  Parker  was 
introduced  in  1858,  by  their  common  friend,  Joseph 
Lyman  (like  Kent  the  son  of  an  old  Federalist)  wrote 
to  him  a  few  weeks  later  (Sept.  21,  1858)  thus: 

"  I  left  Fishkill  this  morning  in  the  train  with  your 
volume  containing  the  Webster  discourse.  I  was  enchained 
by  it,  buried  in  it, —  insensible  to  the  j  arrings  and  the 
shrieking  of  the  engine;  lost  to  everything  but  the  magic 
power  of  the  orator.  It  is  a  wonderful  oration.  Daniel 
Webster  never  in  life  produced  a  speech  comparable  to  it 
in  depth  of  thought,  richness  of  imagery  and  eloquence 
of  expression.  I  write  under  the  fresh  influence  of  the 
eloquence,  but  with  perfect  sincerity.  In  some  respects 
Webster's  fame  will  be  indebted  to  you  for  this  very 
speech.  You  will  give  to  future  times  a  more  impressive 
view  of  this  extraordinary  man  than  his  works  will  con 
vey.  But  do  you  not  overestimate  his  mental  powers? 
His  writings  are,  after  all,  pretty  dull  reading.  When 
you  call  him  the  greatest  orator  who  has  spoken  the  Eng 
lish  tongue,  do  you  not  go  too  far?  Is  he  superior  to 
Burke,  from  whom  he  took  several  of  his  happiest 
rhetorical  figures?  Indeed,  is  not  Burke  superior  to 
Webster  in  everything  except  in  mere  logical  reasoning? 
Webster  was  not  a  great  lawyer.  Some  of  his  arguments, 
especially  on  constitutional  questions,  are  very  fine.  But 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

of  black-letter  law  he  knew  little,  and  he  despised  it; 
and  from  the  constitution  of  his  mind  he  did  not  pursue, 
and  perhaps  was  scarcely  able  to  follow  the  subtile  threads 
of  thought  which  lawyers  like  Charles  Austin  and  Har- 
grave  delighted  in. 

"  Where  in  all  his  speeches  was  a  great  philosophic 
thought  exhibited?  What  truth  of  universal  application 
has  he  declared?  What  great  sophistry  has  he  unveiled? 
What  discovery  in  politics  or  morals  has  he  made?  His 
style  is  singularly  clear,  vigorous  and  impressive;  but 
what  expressions  of  his  have  become  incorporated  in  the 
common  language?  I  have  sometimes  thought  that  his 
immense  personal  influence  was  to  be  ascribed  to  his  face 
and  figure;  for  there  was  truth  in  the  saying  of  Charles 
Fox  concerning  Thurlow,  that  *  he  must  be  an  impostor, 
since  nobody  could  be  so  wise  as  Thurlow  looked/  ' 

These  were  the  queries  and  opinions  of  a  good  law 
yer,  contemporary  with  Webster,  though  twenty  years 
younger;  but  one  a  little  outside  the  circle  in  which 
Webster  dazzled  and  was  adored. 

In  revising  the  Webster  sermon  (which  I  heard) 
for  the  final  edition,  Parker  took  great  pains,  and 
seldom  made  a  mistake  in  fact.  The  true  statement 
(questioned  by  some)  that  in  1815  "  Webster  sought 
the  office  of  attorney-general  of  New  Hampshire " 
rested  with  Parker  on  the  authority  of  Judge  C.  E. 
Potter  of  Manchester,  N.  H.,  one  of  the  best  anti 
quaries  of  his  time,  who  wrote  the  fact  to  Parker,  and 
his  letter  is  before  me.  John  Taylor  Oilman  of  Ex 
eter  was  then  governor  of  New  Hampshire,  and  was 
to  be  succeeded  by  a  Democrat,  William  Plumer  of 
Epping.  Judge  Potter  wrote  (March  28,  1853)  : 

"  Mr.  Webster  was  an  applicant  for  the  office  of  attor 
ney-general  in  1815,  after  he  discovered  that  the  Feder- 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

alists  were  in  a  minority  in  New  Hampshire,  and  that 
he  could  not  be  continued  in  Congress.  The  appoint 
ment  was  made  December  15,  1815:  Mr.  Webster  was  an 
applicant  and  Gov.  Oilman  intended  that  he  should  be 
appointed.  The  three  Democrats  in  the  council  (which 
numbers  five)  were  determined  he  should  not  be  appointed, 
—  his  anti-war  course  in  Congress  having  embittered  the 
Democrats  against  him.  On  the  day  named,  Gov.  Gilman 
nominated  Mr.  Webster,  and  was  supported  by  the  two 
Federalists  in  the  council, —  the  three  Democrats  oppos 
ing  and  defeating  the  nomination.  The  afternoon  of  the 
same  day,  Gen.  Pierce  of  Hillsborough,  father  of  our 
President,  proposed  George  Sullivan  (son  of  Gen.  John 
Sullivan)  for  the  office,  was  supported  by  the  other  two 
Democrats,  and  Gov.  Gilman  confirmed  the  nomination. 
Mr.  Webster  thus  defeated,  and  seeing  his  political  fate 
was  sealed  in  New  Hampshire,  forthwith  determined  to 
remove  to  Boston,  and  did  so  the  following  year,  1816." 

These  are  the  recorded  facts  in  the  case,  which  never 
rested  on  gossip,  but  on  the  well-known  course  of  poli 
tics  in  the  State.  It  was  the  son  of  the  old  Revolu 
tionary  soldier,  afterwards  Governor  Pierce,  whom 
Webster  was  favoring  for  the  Presidency  at  the  time 
of  his  death  in  1852.  It  was  not  true,  however,  that 
he  "  continued  as  congressman." 

Up  to  the  position  finally  taken  by  Mr.  Webster, 
Parker  had  been  an  admirer  of  his  genius,  and  gen 
erally  a  supporter  of  his  national  policy,  though  re 
gretting  his  well-known  laxity  of  morals,  and  his  oc 
casional  lapses  from  political  morality  in  bis  public 
career.  But  when  Webster  cooperated  with  the  dis- 
unionists  of  the  South,  Mason  of  Virginia,  Davis  of 
Mississippi,  Stephens  and  Toombs  of  Georgia,  and 
their  associates,  in  passing  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  of 
September,  1850,  Parker,  who  had  previously  confined 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

his  attacks  on  slavery  to  sermons  and  speeches,  be 
came  (in  1850)  an  active  protector  of  his  parishioners 
and  others,  who  were  subject  to  kidnapping  under 
that  infamous  legislation,  enforced  as  it  soon  was  bj 
some  of  the  basest  and  meanest  of  the  Bostonian  pop 
ulation,  as  well  as  by  others  of  higher  social  standing. 
As  we  have  seen,  he  brought  William  and  Ellen  Craft, 
courageous  fugitives  from  Southern  slavery,  to  his 
own  house  and  sheltered  them  from  the  slave-hunters, 
whom  he  also  persuaded  to  leave  Boston.  In  the  next 
important  case,  that  of  Shadrach,  Parker  took  part  to 
the  extent  of  writing,  as  I  suppose,  the  "  Proclama 
tion  "  against  Caphart,  who  had  caused  Shadrach's 
arrest,  and  in  other  ways  he  had  opposed  the  execution 
of  Webster's  law  in  Massachusetts.  The  facts  con 
cerning  the  Crafts  (whom  I  knew  after  their  return 
from  England  to  emancipated  America)  are  set  forth 
in  this  and  a  preceding  volume ;  but  since  the  inter 
esting  facts  in  the  Shadrach  case  are  not  so  well 
known,  I  have  made  them  the  subject  of  one  of  the  sec 
tions  of  this  volume. 

The  whole  history  of  Parker's  connection  with  the 
revolt  against  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  and  the  repeal 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise  (for  the  express  purpose 
of  introducing  slavery  into  Kansas  and  Colorado), 
will  be  found  in  the  extracts  made  from  Parker's  un 
spoken  but  published  "  Defense "  against  the  mon 
strous  and  futile  indictment  of  him  and  others  in  1854  ; 
an  action  and  an  extraordinary  sequence  of  events, 
which  the  uprising  of  the  North  against  the  Kansas- 
Nebraska  Act  prevented  from  being  as  injurious  to 
the  opponents  of  Webster  and  of  his  pro-slavery  meas 
ures  as  it  had  been  judicially  determined  in  advance 
those  arrests  and  indictments  should  be.  The  judicial 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

history  of  the  dismal  period  from  the  autumn  of  1850 
to  the  decision  of  Taney  in  1857,  finds  one  of  its  best 
chapters  in  Parker's  book. 

In  reading  the  anti-slavery  sermons  and  speeches 
of  Parker,  if  they  are  read  with  an  open  mind,  and 
not  through  the  spectacles  of  old  prejudice,  which 
some  of  the  present  survivors  cannot  lay  aside,  one 
is  struck  with  the  profound  political  philosophy  they 
disclose,  and  with  the  prognostication,  based  on  in 
duction  and  insight,  which  appears  here  and  there, 
especially  in  the  later  years,  and  after  he  had  ceased 
to  publish  much.  The  late  Dr.  William  T.  Harris, 
an  early  disciple  of  Parker  in  German  philosophy 
and  in  politics,  said  to  me  in  the  last  conver 
sation  I  had  with  him,  in  September,  1909,  "  I  regard 
Theodore  Parker  as  the  most  profound  political  phi 
losopher  America  has  yet  had ;  he  went  to  the  root  of 
the  matter,  and  reasoned,  as  few  of  our  statesmen 
did,  from  first  principles."  In  this  respect,  although 
with  slower  steps,  Abraham  Lincoln  followed  him,  and 
Harris  added  that  apparently  Lincoln  was  much  in 
fluenced  in  his  anti-slavery  views  by  what  he  read  of 
Parker  in  sermons  and  speeches,  with  which  his  part 
ner  Herndon  supplied  him,  as  well  as  reading  to  him 
the  letters  he  received  from  Parker  in  the  years 
1854-58.  The  "house  divided  against  itself"  came 
out  in  Parker's  published  words,  long  before  Lincoln 
adopted  that  strong  figure  and  gave  it  universal  cur 
rency. 

I  have  often  had  occasion  to  think  that  persons  of 
my  own  and  later  times  who  write  and  speak  so  glibly 
about  Parker,  have  never  read  him  carefully,  and  have 
no  conception  of  the  depth  of  principle  and  the  vast 
collection  of  contemporary  facts  on  which  he  based 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

his  inductions  and  predictions.  No  American  of  his 
time  had  a  wider  correspondence,  or  intercourse  with 
a  more  varied  circle  of  acquaintances  than  Theodore 
Parker,  as  I  have  reason  to  know  from  the  many  vol 
umes  of  his  correspondence  long  in  my  hands  by  the 
bequest  of  Mrs.  Parker,  and  from  which  I  have  drawn 
in  editing  this  volume.  Few  historical  students  have 
seen  these  volumes,  or  have  any  clear  idea  of  their 
contents.  Those  portions  printed  by  Weiss  in  his 
two-volume  Life,  give  some  conception  of  this  mass, 
but  a  very  imperfect  one.  Many  of  the  letters  never 
came  into  his  hands,  and  he  did  not  always  understand 
the  connection  of  those  which  he  printed.  The  same 
is  true  to  some  extent  of  Parker's  journals,  all  now  in 
my  possession. 

An  effort  is  sometimes  made  by  persons  (as  Lowell 
said)  "  mole-blind  to  the  soul's  make  and  style,"  to 
place  Webster  and  Abraham  Lincoln  on  the  same  plat 
form  as  to  slavery.  Nothing  could  be  further  from 
the  fact.  Clay  was  the  admiration  of  young  Lincoln, 
but  he  had  even  a  greater  aversion  to  negro  slavery 
than  Clay  had.  Lincoln  was  the  most  humble  of  great 
men ;  Webster  the  most  arrogant ;  Lincoln  the  most  un 
selfish,  Webster  the  most  self-indulgent.  Lincoln  was 
always  meditating  on  justice  and  the  moral  sanctions ; 
Webster  seems  to  have  had  no  general  principles,  and 
to  have  rated  law  above  justice.  There  was  in  fact 
much  congeniality  of  sentiment  between  Lincoln  and 
Parker,  and  their  political  philosophy  was  much  the 
same.  Parker  stated  his  principles  with  more  method, 
but  Lincoln  arrived  at  the  same  results  by  a  concise 
logic  of  his  own.  He  was  for  years  an  eager  reader 
of  Parker's  sermons  and  speeches,  furnished  to  him  by 
his  law-partner,  Herndon,  whose  correspondence  with 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

Parker  has  this  year  been  published  in  Iowa  by  Rev. 
Joseph  Newton,  to  whom  I  made  over  the  manuscripts 
early  in  1909.  Of  Lincoln,  after  reading  his  speeches 
in  the  Douglas  debate  of  1858,  and  some  earlier 
speeches  of  1856,  Parker  had  high  hopes  as  a  leader 
of  anti-slavery  opinion;  and  in  1860  preferre^htRPto 
Seward,  whom  he  had  long  favored  as  a  presidential 
candidate.  Had  Parker  lived  a  year  longer,  he  would 
have  voted  for  Lincoln,  and  would  have  commended 
his  courageous  policy,  as  he  had  in  1858,  when  Lin 
coln  and  his  friends,  Trumbull  and  Herndon,  held 
Illinois  in  the  Republican  party,  instead  of  turning  it 
over  to  Senator  Douglas,  as  Seward,  Greeley  and 
Henry  Wilson  eagerly  advocated.  On  this  point  the 
Parker-Herndon  correspondence  is  very  illuminating. 
The  anxiety  of  Lincoln  on  the  subject  of  the  in 
creasing  spread  of  slavery,  from  1854  to  1859,  is 
marked,  and  in  sharp  contrast  to  the  subservience  of 
Webster  in  1850-52  to  the  plans  of  the  slaveholders. 
Both  were  lovers  of  the  Union ;  but  with  Lincoln  the 
controlling  wish  was  for  a  Union  without  chattel  slav 
ery  ;  with  Webster  the  wish  was  for  Union  first  and 
liberty  afterwards,  if  at  all.  He  had  deserted  his 
early  position,  and  seems  to  have  despaired  of  seeing 
slavery  abolished ;  while  Lincoln,  and  more  strongly 
Parker,  foresaw  that  it  must  go  down  before  the 
spirit  of  the  nineteenth  century,  which,  Parker  de 
clared,  would  witness  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves 
that  Lincoln  effected.  The  disastrous  self-destruction 
of  Webster's  reputation,  which  Parker  more  than  once 
characterized  as  it  deserved,  was  more  philosophically 
censured  by  Emerson,  who,  like  Parker,  but  even  more 
intimately,  had  been  bred  in  the  admiration  of  that 
man's  attitude  and  eloquence.  Thoreau  said  of  John 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

Brown,  "  He  could  not  be  tried  by  his  peers, —  far 
they  did  not  exist."  But  in  all  the  attributes  of  in 
tellect  and  in  the  more  subtile  charms  of  oratory,  Em 
erson  was  the  peer  of  Webster ;  and  what  was  his  ver 
dict?  He  said  at  New  York,  March  7,  1854,  when 
the  evil  fruits  of  Webster's  betrayal  of  his  trust  were 
glaringly  manifest  in  the  movement  to  repeal  the  Mis 
souri  Compromise: 

"  Four  years  ago  to-night,  on  one  of  those  high  critical 
moments  in  history  when  great  issues  are  determined, 
when  the  powers  of  right  and  wrong  are  mustered  for 
conflict,  and  it  lies  with  one  man  to  give  a  casting  vote, — 
Mr.  Webster,  most  unexpectedly,  threw  his  whole  weight 
on  the  side  of  slavery,  and  caused  by  his  personal  and 
official  authority  the  passage  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill. 
It  is  remarked  of  the  Americans  that  they  value  dexterity 
too  much  and  honor  too  little.  Whether  this  defect  be 
national  or  not,  it  is  the  defect  and  calamity  of  Mr. 
Webster.  He  decided  for  slavery;  and  that  when  the 
aspect  of  that  institution  was  no  longer  doubtful, —  no 
longer  feeble  and  apologetic,  and  proposing  soon  to  end 
itself, —  but  strong,  aggressive,  and  threatening  an  il 
limitable  increase.  Here  was  the  question;  Are  you  for 
man  and  for  the  good  of  man,  or  are  you  for  the  hurt 
and  harm  of  man?  It  was  the  question  whether  the 
negro  shall  be,  as  the  Indians  were  in  Spanish  America, 
a  piece  of  money;  whether  this  system,  which  is  a  kind 
of  factory  for  converting  men  into  monkeys,  shall  be  up 
held  and  enlarged.  And  Mr.  Webster  and  the  country 
went  for  the  application  to  these  poor  men  of  quadruped 
law.  .  .  .  Angry  parties  went  from  bad  to  worse, 
and  the  decision  of  Webster  was  accompanied  with 
everything  offensive  to  freedom  and  good  morals.  He 
did  as  immoral  men  usually  do;  made  very  low  bows  to 
the  Christian  Church,  and  went  through  all  the  Sunday 
decorums;  but  when  allusion  was  made  to  the  question 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

of  duty  and  the  sanctions  of  morality,  he  very  frankly 
spoke,  at  Albany,  of  '  some  higher  law,  something  existing 
somewhere  between  here  and  the  Third  Heaven, —  I  do 
not  know  where.'  And  this  wretched  atheism  found  some 
laughter  in  the  company." 

Such  were  the  terms  of  just  indignation  in  which 
Emerson,  like  Parker,  spoke  of  the  hurtful  closing 
years  of  Webster's  life.  But  in  his  private  journal 
he  wrote  down  the  stinging  epigram,  only  made  public 
since  Emerson's  death, —  \ 

Why  did  all  manly  powers  in  Webster  fail? 
He  wrote  on  Nature's  noblest  brow,  '  For  Sale.' 

Not  wholly  unlike  this  analysis  of  Webster  by  Em 
erson  was  the  judgment  of  Calhoun  upon  him  in  1832: 
"  Mr.  Webster  will  never  be  President.  He  lacks  the 
qualifications  of  a  leader;  he  has  no  faith  in  his  own 
convictions ;  he  can  never  be  the  head  of  a  party.  Su 
perior  in  intellect  to  Mr.  Clay,  he  lacks  Clay's  moral 
courage  and  his  strong  convictions.  Hence  Clay  will 
always  be  the  head  of  the  party,  and  Webster  will 
follow." 

This  age,  at  the  end  of  a  century  from  his  birth,  is 
still  too  near  Theodore  Parker,  this  great  scholar  and 
brave  champion  of  every  good  cause,  to  appreciate  him 
rightly.  The  men  of  his  own  time  knew  him  or  mis 
conceived  him ;  he  was  intensely  loved  and  virulently 
hated;  but  the  men  of  genius  in  each  age  know  and 
describe  their  contemporaries  better  than  the  next  gen 
eration  or  two  usually  can.  Of  all  his  contemporaries, 
Emerson,  who  knew  him  intimately  for  a  quarter-cen 
tury,  at  his  death  passed  the  best  judgment  upon  Par 
ker,  which  time  will  only  confirm,  when  the  loves  and 
hates  of  threescore  years  have  died  away: 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

'  'Tis  plain  to  me  that  he  has  achieved  a  historic  im 
mortality  here;  that  he  has  so  woven  himself  into  the 
history  of  Boston  in  these  few  years,  that  he  can  never 
be  left  out  of  your  annals.  It  will  not  be  in  the  Acts  of 
city  councils,  nor  of  obsequious  mayors;  nor  in  the  State- 
house  the  proclamations  of  governors,  with  their  failing 
virtue, —  failing  them  at  critical  moments, —  that  coming 
generations  will  study  what  really  befell;  but  in  the  plain 
lessons  of  Theodore  Parker  in  this  Music  Hall,  in  Faneuil 
Hall,  or  in  legislative  committee-rooms,  that  the  true  tem 
per  and  authentic  record  of  these  days  will  be  read.  The 
next  generation  will  care  little  for  the  chances  of  elections 
that  govern  governors  now;  it  will  care  little  for  fine  gen 
tlemen  who  behaved  shabbily;  but  it  will  read  very  in 
telligently  in  his  rough  story,  fortified  with  exact  anec 
dotes,  precise  with  names  and  dates,  what  part  was  taken 
by  each  actor;  who  threw  himself  into  the  cause  of  hu 
manity  and  came  to  the  rescue  of  civilization  at  a  hard 
pinch,  and  who  blocked  its  course. 

"  His  ministry  fell  on  a  political  crisis ;  on  the  years 
when  Southern  slavery  broke  over  its  old  banks,  made 
new  and  vast  pretensions,  and  wrung  from  the  weakness 
or  treachery  of  Northern  people  fatal  concessions  in  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Bill  and  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Com 
promise.  Two  days,  bitter  in  the  memory  of  Boston,  the 
days  of  the  rendition  of  Sims  and  of  Burns,  made  the 
occasion  of  his  most  remarkable  discourses.  He  kept 
nothing  back.  In  terrible  earnest  he  denounced  the  pub 
lic  crime,  and  meted  out  to  every  official,  high  and  low, 
his  due  portion.  It  was  his  great  service  to  freedom. 
He  took  away  the  reproach  of  silent  consent  that  would 
otherwise  have  lain  against  the  indignant  minority,  by 
uttering,  in  the  hour  and  place  wherein  these  outrages 
were  done,  the  stern  protest. 

"  Ah,  my  brave  brother !  it  seems  as  if,  in  a  frivolous 
age,  our  loss  were  immense,  and  your  place  cannot  be 
supplied.  But  you  will  already  be  consoled  in  the  trans- 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

fer  of  your  genius,  knowing  well  that  the  nature  of  the 
world  will  affirm  to  all  men,  in  all  times,  that  which  for 
twenty-five  years  you  valiantly  spoke;  that  the  winds  of 
Italy  murmur  the  same  truth  over  your  grave, —  the  winds 
of  America  over  these  bereaved  streets;  that  the  sea  which 
bore  your  mourners  home  affirms  it,  the  stars  in  their 
courses,  and  the  inspirations  of  youth;  whilst  the  polished 
and  pleasant  traitors  to  human  rights,  with  perverted 
learning  and  disgraced  graces,  rot  and  are  forgotten  with 
their  double  tongue,  saying  all  that  is  sordid  for  the  cor 
ruption  of  man." 

F.  B.  SANBORN. 


Volume  XI.  of  this  edition,  entitled  The  Slave 
Power,  contains  eleven  of  the  earlier  addresses  of  The 
odore  Parker  on  anti-slavery  themes. 

Five  later  addresses  on  anti-slavery  themes  by 
Theodore  Parker,  with  notes  by  Mr.  Sanborn,  will 
be  found  in  the  last  volume  (XIV.)  of  this  edition  of 
his  works,  entitled  Miscellanies.  The  addresses  bear 
the  following  titles :  "  A  New  Lesson  for  the  Day," 
"  The  Aspect  of  Slavery  in  America,"  "  The  Effect 
of  Slavery  on  the  American  People,"  "  Parker's  In 
dictment  and  the  Fugitive  Slave  Cases."  "  The  John 
Brown  Campaign." 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I.     THE  MEXICAN  WAR  . 1 

II.     THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  PRESIDENT  POLK  .  48 

III.  THE  STATE  OF  THE  NATION 92 

IV.  THE  LIKE  AND  THE  DIFFERENT    .... 

V.     THE  FUGITIVE  SLAVE  LAW 143 

VI.     AN  ANTI-SLAVERY  ADDRESS 153 

VII.     THE  PROGRESS  OF  AMERICA 196 

VIII.     THE  NEW  CRIME  AGAINST  HUMANITY     .     .  250 

IX.     THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA         .     .  333 
X.     THE  PRESENT  ASPECT  OF  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY 

ENTERPRISE 397 

XI.     THE  PRESENT  CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  AFFAIRS  430 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR 

1848 

Soon  after  the  commencement  of  the  war  against 
Mexico,  I  said  something  respecting  it  in  this  place. 
But  while  I  was  printing  the  sermon,  I  was  advised 
to  hasten  the  compositors  in  their  work,  or  the  war 
would  be  over  before  the  sermon  was  out.  The  advice 
was  like  a  good  deal  of  the  counsel  that  is  given  to  a 
man  who  thinks  for  himself,  and  honestly  speaks  what 
he  unavoidably  thinks.  It  is  now  more  than  two  years 
since  the  war  began ;  I  have  hoped  to  live  long  enough 
to  see  it  ended,  and  hoped  to  say  a  word  about  it 
when  over.  A  month  ago,  this  day,  the  25th  of  May, 
the  treaty  of  peace,  so  much  talked  of,  was  ratified 
by  the  Mexican  Congress.  A  few  days  ago,  it  was 
officially  announced  by  telegraph,  to  your  collector  in 
Boston,  that  the  war  with  Mexico  was  at  an  end. 

There  are  two  things  about  this  war  quite  remarka 
ble.  The  first  is,  the  manner  of  its  commencement. 
It  was  begun  illegally,  without  the  action  of  the  con- 
/stitutional  authorities ;  begun  by  the  command  of  the 
-President  of  the  United  States,  who  ordered  the  Amer 
ican  army  into  a  territory  which  the  Mexicans  claimed 
s  their  own.  The  President  says,  "  It  is  ours ;  "  but 
the  Mexicans  also  claimed  it,  and  were  in  possession 
thereof  until  forcibly  expelled.  This  is  a  plain  case; 
and,  as  I  have  elsewhere  treated  at  length  of  this  mat 
ter,*  I  will  not  dwell  upon  it  again,  except  to  mention 

*  In  the  Massachusetts  Quarterly  Review,  Vol.  I.,  Art.  I.  See 
also  the  paper  on  the  administration  of  Mr.  Polk,  in  Vol.  III., 
Art.  VIII. 

1 


2  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

a  single  fact  but  recently  divulged.  It  is  well  known 
that  Mr.  Polk  claimed  the  territory  west  of  the  Nueces 
and  east  of  the  Rio  Grande,  as  forming  a  part  of 
Texas,  and  therefore  as  forming  part  of  the  United 
States  after  the  annexation  of  Texas.  He  contends 
that  Mexico  began  the  war  by  attacking  the  American 
army  while  in  that  territory  and  near  the  Rio  Grande. 
But,  from  the  correspondence  laid  before  the  American 
Senate,  in  its  secret  session  for  considering  the  treaty, 
it  now  appears  that  on  the  10th  of  November,  1845, 
Mr.  Polk  instructed  Mr.  Slidellto  offer  a  relinquish- 
ment  of  American  claims  against  Mexico,  amounting 
to  $5,000,000  or  $6,000,000  for  the  sake  of  having  the 
Rio  Grande  as  the  western  boundary  of  Texas ;  yes, 
for  that  very  territory  which  he  says  was  ours  with 
out  paying  a  cent.  When  it  was  conquered,  a  mili 
tary  government  was  established  there,  as  in  other 
/places  in  Mexico. 

The  other  remarkable  thing  about  the  war  is,  the 
manner  of  its  conclusion.  The  treaty  of  peace  which 
has  just  been  ratified  by  the  Mexican  authorities,  and 
which  puts  an  end  to  the  war,  was  negotiated  by  a  man 
who  had  no  more  legal  authority  than  any  one  of  us 
has  to  do  it.  Mr.  Polk  made  the  war,  without  con 
sulting  Congress,  and  that  body  adopted  the  war  bj 
a  vote  almost  unanimous.  Mr.  Nicholas  P.  Trist  made 
the  treaty,  without  consulting  the  President ;  yes,  even 
after  the  President  had  ordered  him  to  return  home. 
As  the  Congress  adopted  Mr.  Polk's  war,  so  Mr.  Polk 
adopted  Mr.  Trist's  treaty ;  and  the  war  illegally  begun 
is  brought  informally  to  a  close.  Mr.  Polk  is  now  in 
the  President's  chair,  seated  on  the  throne  of  the 
Union,  although  he  made  the  war;  and  Mr.  Trist,  it  is 
said,  is  under  arrest  for  making  the  treaty. 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR  3 

When  the  war  began,  there  was  a  good  deal  of  talk 
about  it  here;  talk  against  it.  But,  as  things  often 
go  in  Boston,  it  ended  in  talk.  The  newsboys  made 
money  out  of  the  war.  Political  parties  were  true  to 
their  wonted  principles,  or  their  wonted  prejudices. 
The  friends  of  the  party  in  power  could  see  no  in 
formality  in  the  beginning  of  hostilities;  no  injustice 
in  the  war  itself;  not  even  an  impolicy.  They  were 
offended  if  an  obscure  man  preached  against  it  of  a 
Sunday.  The  political  opponents  of  the  party  in 
power  talked  against  the  war,  as  a  matter  of  course ; 
but,  when  the  elections  came,  supported  the  men  that 
made  it  with  unusual  alacrity  —  their  deeds  serving  as 
commentary  upon  their  words,  and  making  further 
remark  thereon,  in  this  place,  quite  superfluous.  JVlany 
men  —  who,  whatever  other  parts  of  Scripture  they 
may  forget,  never  cease  to  remember  that  "  money 
answereth  all  things," — diligently  set  themselves  to 
make  money  out  of  the  war  and  the  new  turn  it  gave 
to  national  affairs.  Others  thought  that  "  glory  "  was 
a  good  thing,  and  so  engaged  in  the  war  itself,  hoping 

[to  return,  in  due  time,  all  glittering  with  its  honors. 

'So  what  with  the  one  political  party  that  really 
praised  the  war,  and  the  other  who  affected  to  oppose 
it,  and  with  the  commercial  party,  who  looked  only 
for  a  market  —  this  for  merchandise,  and  that  for 
"  patriotism  "  -  the  friends  of  peace,  who  seriously 
and  heartily  opposed  the  war,  were  very  few  in  num- 

\  ber.  True,  the  "  sober  second  thought "  of  the  peo 
ple  has  somewhat  increased  their  number;  but  they 
are  still  few,  mostly  obscure  men. 

Now  peace  has  come,  nobody  talks  much  about  it ; 
the  newsboys  have  scarce  made  a  cent  by  the  news. 
They  fired  cannons,  a  hundred  guns  on  the  Common, 


4  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

for  joy  at  the  victory  of  Monterey;  at  Philadelphia, 
Baltimore,  Washington,  New  York,  men  illuminated 
their  houses  in  honor  of  the  battle  of  Buena  Vista,  I 
think  it  was;  the  custom-house  was  officially  il 
luminated  at  Boston  for  that  occasion.  But  we  hear 
of  no  cannons  to  welcome  the  peace.  Thus  far,  it 
does  not  seem  that  a  single  candle  has  been  burnt  in 
rejoicing  for  that.  The  newspapers  are  full  of  talk, 
as  usual ;  flags  are  flying  in  the  streets ;  the  air  is  a 
little  noisy  with  hurrahs ;  but  it  is  all  talk  about  the 
conventions  at  Baltimore  and  Philadelphia ;  hurrahs 
for  Taylor  and  Cass.  Nobody  talks  of  the  peace. 
Flags  enough  flap  in  the  wind,  with  the  names  of  rival 
candidates ;  but  nowhere  do  the  stripes  and  stars  bear 
"  Peace  "  as  their  motto.  The  peace  now  secured  is 
purchased  with  such  conditions  imposed  on  Mexico, 
that  while  every  one  will  be  glad  of  it,  no  man  that 
loves  justice  can  be  proud  of  it.  Very  little  is  said 
about  the  treaty.  The  distinguished  senator  from 
Massachusetts  did  himself  honor,  it  seems  to  me,  in 
voting  against  it  on  the  ground  that  it  enabled  us  to 
plunder  Mexico  of  her  land.  But  the  treaty  contains 
some  things  highly  honorable  to  the  character  of  the 
nation,  of  which  we  may  well  enough  be  proud,  if 
ever  of  anything.  I  refer  to  the  twenty-second  and 
twenty-third  articles,  which  provide  for  arbitration 
between  the  nations,  if  future  difficulties  should  occur; 
and  to  the  pains  taken,  in  case  of  actual  hostilities, 
for  the  security  of  all  unarmed  persons,  for  the  pro 
tection  of  private  property,  and  for  the  humane  treat 
ment  of  all  prisoners  taken  in  war.  These  ideas,  and 
the  language  of  these  articles,  are  copied  from  the 
celebrated  treaty  between  the  United  States  and  Prus 
sia,  the  treaty  of  1785.  It  is  scarcely  needful  to 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR  5 

add  that  they  were  then  introduced  by  that  great 
and  good  man,  Benjamin  Franklin,  one  of  the  nego 
tiators  of  the  treaty.  They  made  a  new  epoch  in 
diplomacy,  and  introduced  a  principle  previously  un 
known  in  the  law  of  nations.  The  insertion  of  these 
articles  in  the  new  treaty  is,  perhaps,  the  only  thing 
connected  with  the  war  which  an  American  can  look 
upon  with  satisfaction.  Yet  this  fact  excites  no  at 
tention. 

Mr.  Trist  introduced  these  articles  without  hav 
ing  instructions  to  do  so;  the  honor,  therefore,  is 
wholly  due  to  him.  There  were  some  in  the  Senate 
who  opposed  them. 

Still,  while  so  little  notice  is  taken  of  this  matter, 
in  public  and  private,  it  may  be  worth  while  for  a 
minister,  on  Sunday,  to  say  a  word  about  the  peace ; 
and,  now  the  war  is  over,  to  look  back  upon  it,  to 
see  what  it  has  cost,  in  money  and  in  men,  and  what 
we  have  got  by  it ;  what  its  consequences  have  been, 
thus  far,  and  are  likely  to  be  for  the  future;  what 
new  dangers  and  duties  come  from  this  cause  inter 
polated  into  our  nation.  We  have  been  long  prom 
ised  "  indemnity  for  the  past,  and  security  for  the 
future ;  "  let  us  see  what  we  are  to  be  indemnified  for, 
and  what  secured  against.  The  natural  justice  of 
the  war  I  will  not  look  at  now.  *i 

First,  then,  of  the  cost  of  the  war.  Money  is  the 
first  thing  with  a  good  many  men ;  the  only  thing 
with  some,  and  an  important  thing  with  all.  It  is  a  lit 
tle  difficult  to  determine  the  actual  cost  of  the  war,  thus 
far  —  even  its  direct  cost  —  for  the  bills  are  not  all 
in  the  hands  of  government;  and  then,  as  a  matter 
of  political  party-craft,  the  government,  of  course, 
is  unwilling  to  let  the  full  cost  become  known  be- 


6  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

fore  the  next  election  is  over.  So  it  is  to  be  ex 
pected  that  the  government  will  keep  the  facts  from 
the  people  as  long  as  possible.  Most  governments 
would  do  the  same.  But  truth  has  a  right  of  way 
everywhere,  and  will  recover  it  at  last,  spite  of  the 
adverse  possession  of  a  political  party.  The  indi 
rect  cost  of  the  war  must  be  still  more  difficult  to 
come  at,  and  will  long  remain  a  matter  of  calcu 
lation,  in  which  it  is  impossible  to  reach  certainty. 
We  do  not  know  yet  the  entire  cost  of  the  Florida 
War,  or  the  late  war  with  England;  the  complete 
cost  of  the  Revolutionary  War  must  forever  be  un 
known. 

It  is  natural  for  most  men  to  exaggerate  what 
favors  their  argument ;  but  when  I  cannot  obtain 
the  exact  figures,  I  will  come  a  good  deal  within  the 
probable  amount.  The  military  and  naval  appropri 
ations  for  the  year  ending  in  June,  1847,  were  $40,- 
865,155.96;  for  the  next  year,  $31,377,679.92;  the 
sum  asked  for  the  present  year,  till  next  June,  $42,- 
224,000;  making  a  whole  of  $114,466,835.88.  It  is 
true  that  all  this  appropriation  is  not  for  the  Mex 
ican  War,  but  it  is  also  true  that  this  sum  does  not 
include  all  the  appropriations  for  the  war.  Esti 
mating  the  sums  already  paid  by  the  government, 
the  private  claims  presented,  and  to  be  presented,  the 
$15,000,000  to  be  paid  Mexico  as  purchase-money 
for  the  territory  we  take  from  her,  the  $5,000,000 
or  $6,000,000  to  be  paid  our  own  citizens  for  their 
claims  against  her, —  I  think  I  am  a  good  deal  within 
the  mark  when  I  say  the  war  will  have  cost  $150,000,- 
000  before  the  soldiers  are  at  home,  discharged,  and 
out  of  the  pay  of  the  State.  In  this  sum  I  do  not 
include  the  bounty  lands  to  be  given  to  the  soldiers 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR  7 

and  officers,  nor  the  pensions  to  be  paid  them,  their 
widows  and  orphans,  for  years  to  come.  I  will  esti 
mate  that  at  $50,000,000  more,  making  a  whole  of 
$£00,000,000  which  has  been  paid  or  must~be.  This 
is  the  direct  cost  to  the  Federal  Government,  and  of 
course  does  not  include  the  sums  paid  by  individual 
States,  or  bestowed  by  private  generosity,  to  feed  and 
clothe  the  volunteers  before  they  were  mustered  into 
service.  This  may  seem  extravagant ;  but,  fifty  years 
hence,  when  party  spirit  no  longer  blinds  men's  eyes, 
and  when  the  whole  is  a  matter  of  history,  I  think  it 
will  be  thought  moderate,  and  be  found  a  good  deal 
within  the  actual  and  direct  cost.  Some  of  this  cost 
will  appear  as  a  public  debt.  Part  of  this  war  debt 
is  funded  already,  part  not  yet  funded.  When  the 
outstanding  demands  are  all  settled,  and  the  treas 
ury  notes  redeemed,  there  will  probably  be  a  war 
debt  of  not  less  than  $125,000,000.  But,  not  to  exag 
gerate,  let  us  call  it  only  $100,000,000. 

It  will,  perhaps,  be  said,  Part  of  this  money,  all 
that  is  paid  in  pensions,  is  a  charity,  and  therefore 
no  loss.  But  it  is  a  charity  paid  to  men  who,  except 
for  the  war,  would  have  needed  no  such  aid;  and, 
therefore,  a  waste.  Of  the  actual  cost  of  the  war, 
some  three  or  four  millions  have  been  spent  in  extrav 
agant  prices  for  hiring  or  purchasing  ships,  in  buying 
provisions  and  various  things  needed  by  the  army, 
and  supplied  by  political  favorites  at  exorbitant  rates. 
This  is  the  only  portion  of  the  cost  which  is  not  a 
sheer  waste ;  here  the  money  has  only  changed  hands ; 
nothing  has  been  destroyed,  except  the  honesty  of 
the  parties  concerned  in  such  transactions.  If  a 
farmer  hires  men  to  help  him  till  the  soil,  the  men 
earn  their  subsistence  and  their  wages,  and  leave,  be- 


8  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

sides,  a  profit  to  their  employer;  when  the  season  is 
over,  he  has  his  crops  and  his  improvements  as  the 
return  for  their  pay  and  subsistence.  But  for  all 
that  the  soldier  has  consumed,  for  his  wages,  his 
clothes,  his  food  and  drink,  the  fighting  tools  he  has 
worn  out,  and  the  ammunition  he  has  expended,  there 
is  no  available  return  to  show;  all  that  is  a  clear 
waste.  The  beef  is  eaten  up,  the  cloth  worn  away, 
the  powder  is  burnt,  and  what  is  there  to  show  for  it 
all?  Nothing  but  the  "  glory."  You  sent  out  sound 
men,  and  they  come  back,  many  of  them,  sick  and 
maimed ;  some  of  them  are  slain. 

The  indirect  pecuniary  cost  of  the  war  is  caused, 
first,  by  diverting  some  150,000  men,  engaged  in  the 
war  directly  or  remotely,  from  the  works  of  productive 
industry,  to  the  labors  of  war,  which  produce  noth 
ing  ;  and,  secondly,  by  disturbing  the  regular  business 
of  the  country,  first,  by  the  withdrawal  of  men  from 
their  natural  work;  then,  by  withdrawing  large  quan 
tities  of  money  from  the  active  capital  of  the  nation ; 
and,  finally,  by  the  general  uncertainty  which  it  causes 
all  over  the  land,  thus  hindering  men  from  undertaking 
or  prosecuting  successfully  their  various  productive 
enterprises.  If  150,000  men  earn  on  the  average  but 
$200  apiece,  that  alone  amounts  to  $30,000,000.  The 
withdrawal  of  such  an  amount  of  labor  from  the  com 
mon  industry  of  the  country  must  be  seriously  felt. 
At  any  rate,  the  nation  has  earned  $30,000,000  less 
than  it  would  have  done  if  these  men  had  kept  about 
their  common  work. 

But  the  diversion  of  capital  from  its  natural  and 
pacific  direction  is  a  greater  evil  in  this  case.  America 
is  rich,  but  her  wealth  consists  mainly  in  land,  in 
houses,  cattle,  ships,  and  various  things  needed  for 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR  9 

human  comfort  and  industry.  In  money,  we  are  poor. 
The  amount  of  money  is  small  in  proportion  to  the 
actual  wealth  of  the  nation,  and  also  in  proportion 
to  its  activity,  which  is  indicated  by  the  business  of 
the  nation.  In  actual  wealth,  the  free  States  of  Amer 
ica  are  probably  the  richest  people  in  the  world;  but 
in  money  we  are  poorer  than  many  other  nations. 
This  is  plain  enough,  though,  perhaps  not  very  well 
known,  and  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  interest,  in 
European  States,  is  from  two  to  four  per  cent,  a 
year,  and  in  America  from  six  to  nine.  The  ac 
tive  capital  of  America  is  small.  Now  in  this 
war  a  national  debt  has  accumulated,  which  probably 
is  or  will  soon  be  $100,000,000  or  $125,000,000.  All 
this  great  sum  of  money  has,  of  course,  been  taken 
from  the  active  capital  of  the  country,  and  there  has 
been  so  much  less  for  the  use  of  the  farmer,  the  man 
ufacturer,  and  the  merchant.  But  for  this  war,  these 
150,000  men  and  these  $100,000,000  would  have  been 
devoted  to  productive  industry;  and  the  result  would 
have  been  shown  by  the  increase  of  our  annual  earn 
ings,  in  increased  wealth  and  comfort. 

Then  war  produced  uncertainty,  and  that  distrust 
amongst  men.  Therefore  many  were  hindered  from 
undertaking  new  works,  and  others  found  their  old 
enterprises  ruined  at  once.  In  this  way  there  has  been 
a  great  loss,  which  cannot  be  accurately  estimated. 
I  think  no  man,  familiar  with  American  industry, 
would  rate  this  indirect  loss  lower  than  $100,000,000 ; 
some,  perhaps,  at  twice  as  much ;  but  to  avoid  all  pos 
sibility  of  exaggeration,  let  us  call  it  half  the  small 
est  of  these  sums,  or  $50,000,000,  as  the  complete 
pecuniary  cost  of  the  Mexican  War,  direct  and  in 
direct. 


10  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

What  have  we  got  to  show  for  all  this  money?  We 
have  a  large  tract  of  territory,  containing,  in  all, 
both  east  and  west  of  the  Rio  Grande,  I  am  told, 
between  700,000  and  800,000  square  miles.  Accounts 
differ  as  to  its  value.  But  it  appears,  from  the  recent 
correspondence  of  Mr.  Slidell,  that  in  1845  the  Pres 
ident  offered  Mexico,  in  money,  $25,000,000  for  that 
territory,  which  we  now  acquire  under  this  new  treaty. 
Suppose  it  is  worth  more,  suppose  it  is  worth  twice 
as  much,  or  all  the  indirect  cost  of  the  war  ($50,000,- 
000),  then  the  $200,000,000  are  thrown  away. 

Now,  for  this  last  sum,  we  could  have  built  a  suffi 
cient  railroad  across  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  and  an 
other  across  the  continent,  from  the  Mississippi  to 
the  Pacific.  If  such  a  road  with  its  suitable  equip 
ment  cost  $100,000  a  mile,  and  the  distance  should 
amount  to  2,000  miles,  then  the  $200,000,000  would 
just  pay  the  bills.  That  would  have  been  the  great 
est  national  work  of  productive  industry  in  the  world. 
In  comparison  with  it,  the  Lake  Moeris  and  the  Pyra 
mids  of  Egypt,  and  the  Wall  of  China,  seem  but  the 
works  of  a  child.  It  might  be  a  work  to  be  proud 
of  till  the  world  ends;  one,  too,  which  would  advance 
the  industry,  the  welfare,  and  general  civilization  of 
mankind  to  a  great  degree,  diminishing  the  distance 
round  the  globe;  saving  millions  of  property  and 
many  lives  each  year;  besides  furnishing,  it  is  thought, 
a  handsome  income  from  the  original  outlay.  But, 
perhaps,  that  would  not  be  the  best  use  which  might 
be  made  of  the  money ;  perhaps  it  would  not  have 
been  wise  to  undertake  that  work.  At  any  rate,  two 
Pacific  railroads  would  be  better  than  one  Mexican 
War.  We  are  seldom  aware  of  the  cost  of  war.  If 
a  single  regiment  of  dragoons  cost  only  $700,000  a 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR  11 

year,  which  is  a  good  deal  less  than  the  actual  cost, 
that  is  considerably  more  than  the  cost  of  twelve 
colleges  like  Harvard  University,  with  its  schools  for 
theology,  law,  and  medicine;  its  scientific  school,  ob 
servatory,  and  all.  We  are,  taken  as  a  whole,  a  very 
ignorant  people ;  and  while  we  waste  our  school-money 
and  school-time,  must  continue  so. 

A  great  man,  who  towers  far  above  the  common 
heads,  full  of  creative  thought,  of  the  ideas  which 
move  the  world,  able  to  organize  that  thought  into 
institutions,  laws,  practical  works ;  a  man  of  a  million, 
a  million-minded  man,  at  the  head  of  a  nation,  putting 
his  thought  into  them;  ruling  not  barely  by  virtue 
of  his  position,  but  by  the  intellectual  and  moral 
power  to  fill  it;  ruling  not  over  men's  heads,  but  in 
their  minds  and  hearts,  and  leading  them  to  new  fields 
of  toil,  increasing  their  numbers,  wealth,  intelligence, 
comfort,  morals,  piety  —  such  a  man  is  a  noble  sight ; 
a  Charlemagne,  or  a  Genghis  Khan,  a  Moses  leading 
his  nation  up  from  Egyptian  bondage  to  freedom  and 
the  promised  land.  How  have  the  eyes  of  the  world 
been  fixed  on  Washington !  In  darker  days  than  ours, 
when  all  was  violence,  it  is  easy  to  excuse  such  men 
if  they  were  warriors  also,  and  made,  for  the  time, 
their  nation  but  a  camp.  There  have  been  ages  when 
the  most  lasting  ink  was  human  blood.  In  our  day, 
when  war  is  the  exception,  and  that  commonly  need 
less,  such  a  man,  so  getting  the  start  of  the  majestic 
world,  were  a  far  grander  sight.  And  with  such  a 
man  at  the  head  of  this  nation,  a  great  man  at  the 
head  of  a  free  nation,  able  and  energetic,  and  en 
terprising  as  we  are,  what  were  too  much  to  hope?  As 
it  is,  we  have  wasted  our  money,  and  got  the  honor  of 
fighting  such  a  war. 


12  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

Let  me  next  speak  of  the  direct  cost  of  the  war  in 
men.  In  April,  1846,  the  entire  army  of  the  United 
States  consisted  of  7,244  men;  the  naval  force  of 
about  7,500.  We  presented  the  gratifying  spectacle 
of  a  nation  of  20,000,000  strong,  with  a  sea-coast  of 
3,000  or  4,000  miles,  and  only  7,000  or  8,000  soldiers, 
and  as  many  armed  men  on  the  sea,  or  less  than  15,- 
000  in  all!  Few  things  were  more  grateful  to  an 
American  than  this  thought,  that  his  country  was  so 
nearly  free  from  the  terrible  curse  of  a  standing  army. 
At  that  time  the  standing  army  of  France  was  about 
480,000  men;  that  of  Russia  nearly  800,000.  Most 
of  the  officers  in  the  American  army  and  navy,  and 
most  of  the  rank  and  file,  had  probably  entered  the 
service  with  no  expectation  of  ever  shedding  the  blood 
of  men.  The  navy  and  army  were  looked  on  as  in 
struments  of  peace;  as  much  so  as  the  police  of  a 
city. 

The  first  of  last  January  there  was,  in  Mexico,  an 
American  army  of  23,695  regular  soldiers,  and  a 
little  more  than  50,000  volunteers,  the  number  can 
not  now  be  exactly  determined,  making  an  army  of 
invasion  of  about  75,000  men.  The  naval  forces,  also, 
had  been  increased  to  10,000.  Estimating  all  the 
men  engaged  in  the  service  of  the  army  and  navy ; 
in  making  weapons  of  war  and  ammunition ;  in  pre 
paring  food  and  clothing ;  in  transporting  those  things 
and  the  soldiers  from  place  to  place,  by  land  or  sea, 
and  in  performing  the  various  other  works  incident 
to  military  operations,  it  is  within  bounds  to  say  that 
there  were  80,000  or  90,000  men  engaged  indirectly 
in  the  works  of  war.  But  not  to  exaggerate,  it  is 
safe  to  say  that  150,000  men  were  directly  or  indi 
rectly  engaged  in  the  Mexican  War.  This  estimate 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR  13 

will  seem  moderate,  when  you  remember  that  there 
were  about  5,000  teamsters  connected  with  the  army 
in  Mexico. 

Here,  then,  were  150,000  men  whose  attention  and 
toil  were  diverted  from  the  great  business  of  productive 
industry  to  merely  military  operations,  or  prepara 
tions  for  them.  Of  course,  all  the  labor  of  these  men 
\  was  of  no  direct  value  to  the  human  race.  The  food 
and  clothing  and  labor  of  a  man  who  earns  nothing 
by  productive  work  of  hand  or  head,  is  food,  cloth 
ing,  and  labor  thrown  away  —  labor  in  vain.  There 
is  nothing  to  show  for  the  things  he  has  consumed. 
So  all  the  work  spent  in  preparing  ammunition  and 
weapons  of  war  is  labor  thrown  away,  an  absolute 
loss,  as  much  as  if  it  had  been  spent  in  making 
earthen  pitchers  and  then  in  dashing  them  to  pieces. 
A  country  is  the  richer  for  every  serviceable  plough 
and  spade  made  in  it,  and  the  world  the  richer;  they 
are  to  be  used  in  productive  work,  and  when  worn 
out,  there  is  the  improved  soil  and  the  crops  that 
have  been  gathered,  to  show  for  the  wear  and  tear  of 
the  tools.  So  a  country  is  the  richer  for  every  in 
dustrious  shoemaker  and  blacksmith  it  contains ;  for 
his  time  and  toil  go  to  increase  the  sum  of  human 
comfort,  creating  actual  wealth.  The  world  also  is 
better  off,  and  becomes  better  through  their  influence. 
But  a  country  is  the  poorer  for  every  soldier  it  main 
tains,  and  the  world  poorer,  as  he  adds  nothing  to 
the  actual  wealth  of  mankind;  so  is  it  the  poorer  for 
each  sword  and  cannon  made  within  its  borders,  and 
the  world  poorer,  for  these  instruments  cannot  be 
used  in  any  productive  work,  only  for  works  of  de 
struction. 

So  much  for  the  labor  of  these  150,000  men;  labor 


14  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

wasted  in  vain.  Let  us  now  look  at  the  cost  of  life. 
It  is  not  possible  to  ascertain  the  exact  loss  suffered 
up  to  this  time,  in  killed,  deceased  by  ordinary  dis 
eases,  and  in  wounded;  for  some  die  before  they  are 
mustered  into  the  service  of  the  United  States,  and 
parts  of  the  army  are  so  far  distant  from  the  seat  of 
government  that  their  recent  losses  are  still  unknown. 
I  rely  for  information  on  the  last  report  of  the  Sec 
retary  of  War,  read  before  the  Senate,  April  10, 
1848,  and  recently  printed.  That  gives  the  losses  of 
parts  of  the  army  up  to  December  last ;  other  accounts 
are  made  up  only  till  October,  or  till  August.  Re 
cent  losses  will  of  course  swell  the  amount  of  destruc 
tion.  According  to  that  report,  on  the  American 
side  there  had  been  killed  in  battle,  or  died  of  wounds 
received  therein,  1,689  persons;  there  had  died  of 
diseases  and  accidents,  6,173 ;  3,743  have  been  wounded 
in  battle,  who  were  not  known  to  be  dead  at  the  date 
of  the  report. 

This  does  not  include  the  deaths  in  the  navy,  nor 
the  destruction   of  men  connected  writh  the   army   in 
various  ways,  as  furnishing  supplies  and  the  like.     Con 
sidering   the   sickness    and   accidents   that   have   hap 
pened   in    the   present   year,    and   others    which   may 
be    expected   before   the    troops   reach   home,    I   may 
v    set  down  the  total  number  of  deaths  on  the  American 
j  s>de,  caused  by  the  war,  at  15,000,  and  the  number 
(  of  wounded  men  at  4,000.     Suppose  the  army  on  the 
average    to    have    consisted    of    50,000   men    for   two 
years,  this  gives  a  mortality  of  fifteen  per  cent,  each 
year,  which  is  an  enormous  loss  even  for  times  of  war, 
and  one  seldom  equaled  in  modern  warfare. 

Now,  most  of  the  men  who  have  thus  died  or  been 
maimed    were   in   the   prime    of   life,    able-bodied    and 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR  15 

hearty  men.  Had  they  remained  at  home  in  the  works 
of  peace,  it  is  not  likely  that  more  than  500  of  the 
number  would  have  died.  So  then  14,500  lives  may 
be  set  down  at  once  to  the  account  of  the  war.  The 
wounded  men  are  of  course  to  thank  the  war,  and 
that  alone,  for  their  smart,  and  the  lifelong  agony 
which  they  are  called  on  to  endure. 

Such  is  the  American  loss.  The  loss  of  the  Mex 
icans  we  cannot  now  determine.  But  they  have  been 
many  times  more  numerous  than  the  Americans ;  have 
been  badly  armed,  badly  commanded,  badly  trained, 
and  besides,  have  been  beaten  in  every  battle;  their 
number  seemed  often  the  cause  of  their  ruin,  making 
them  confident  before  battle,  and  hindering  their  re 
treat  after  they  were  beaten.  Still  more,  they  have 
been  ill  provided  with  surgeons  and  nurses  to  care  for 
the  wounded,  and  were  destitute  of  medicines.  They 
must  have  lost  in  battle  five  or  six  times  more  than 
we  have  done,  and  have  had  a  proportionate  number 
of  wounded.  To  "  lie  like  a  military  bulletin  "  is  a 
European  proverb;  and  it  is  not  necessary  to  trust 
reports  which  tell  of  600  or  900  Mexicans  left  dead 
on  the  ground,  while  the  Americans  lost  but  five  or  six. 
But  when  we  remember  that  only  twelve  Americans 
were  killed  during  the  bombardment  of  Vera  Cruz, 
which  lasted  five  days ;  that  the  citadel  contained  more 
than  5,000  soldiers  and  over  400  pieces  of  cannon, 
we  may  easily  believe  the  Mexican  losses,  on  the  whole, 
have  been  10,000  men  killed  and  perished  of  their 
wounds.  Their  loss  by  sickness  would  probably  be 
smaller  than  our  own,  for  the  Mexicans  were  in  their 
native  climate,  though  often  ill-furnished  with  clothes, 
with  shelter,  and  provisions ;  so  I  will  put  down  their 
loss  by  ordinary  diseases  at  only  5,000,  making  a 


16  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

total  of  15,000  deaths.  Suppose  their  number  of 
wounded  was  four  times  as  great  as  our  own,  or  20,- 
000 ;  I  should  not  be  surprised  if  this  were  only  half 
the  number. 

Put  all  together,  and  we  have  in  total  Americans 
and  Mexicans,  24,000  men  wounded,  more  or  less,  and 
the  greater  part  maimed  for  life ;  and  we  have  30,- 
000  men  killed  on  the  field  of  battle,  or  perished  by 
the  slow  torture  of  their  wounds,  or  deceased  of  dis 
eases  caused  by  extraordinary  exposure;  24,000  men 
maimed ;  30,000  dead ! 

You  all  remember  the  bill  which  so  hastily  passed 
Congress  in  May,  1846,  and  authorized  the  war  pre 
viously  begun.  You  perhaps  have  not  forgot  the  pre 
amble,  "  Whereas  war  exists  by  the  act  of  Mexico." 
Well,  that  bill  authorized  the  waste  of  $200,000,000  of 
American  treasure,  money  enough  to  have  built  a  rail 
road  across  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  and  another  to 
connect  the  Mississippi  and  the  Pacific  Ocean ;  it  de 
manded  the  disturbance  of  industry  and  commerce  all 
over  the  land,  caused  by  withdrawing  $100,000,000 
from  peaceful  investments,  and  diverting  150,000 
Americans  from  their  productive  and  peaceful  works; 
it  demanded  a  loss  yet  greater  of  the  treasure  of  Mex 
icans ;  it  commanded  the  maiming  of  24,000  men  for 
life,  and  the  death  of  30,000  men  in  the  prime  and 
vigor  of  manhood.  Yet  such  was  the  state  of  feel 
ing,  I  will  not  say  of  thought,  in  the  Congress,  that  out 
of  both  houses  only  sixteen  men  voted  against  it.  If 
a  prophet  had  stood  there  he  might  have  said  to  the 
representative  of  Boston,  "  You  have  just  voted  for 
the  wasting  of  200,000,000  of  the  very  dollars  you 
were  sent  there  to  represent;  for  the  maiming  of 
24,000  men  and  the  killing  of  30,000  more  —  part  by 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR  17 

disease,  part  by  the  sword,  part  by  the  slow  and 
awful  lingerings  of  a  wounded  frame!  Sir,  that  is 
the  English  of  your  vote."  Suppose  the  prophet,  be 
fore  the  votes  were  taken,  could  have  gone  round  and 
told  each  member  of  Congress,  "  If  there  comes  a  war, 
you  will  perish  in  it ;  "  perhaps  the  vote  would  have 
been  a  little  different.  It  is  easy  to  vote  away  blood, 
if  it  is  not  your  own ! 

Such  is  the  cost  of  the  war  in  money  and  in  men.  Yet 
it  has  not  been  a  very  cruel  war.  It  has  been  con 
ducted  with  as  much  gentleness  as  a  war  of  invasion 
can  be.  There  is  no  agreeable  way  of  butchering 
men.  You  cannot  make  it  a  pastime.  The  Ameri 
cans  have  always  been  a  brave  people ;  they  were  never 
cruel.  They  always  treated  their  prisoners  kindly  — 
in  the  Revolutionary  War,  in  the  late  war  with  Eng 
land.  True,  they  have  seized  the  Mexican  ports,  taken 
military  possession  of  the  custom-houses,  and  collected 
such  duties  as  they  saw  fit ;  true,  they  sometimes  made 
the  army  of  invasion  self -subsisting,  and  to  that  end 
have  levied  contributions  on  the  towns  they  have  taken  ; 
true,  they  have  seized  provisions  which  were  private 
property,  snatching  them  out  of  the  hands  of  men 
who  needed  them ;  true,  they  have  robbed  the  rich  and 
the  poor ;  true,  they  have  burned  and  bombarded  towns, 
have  murdered  men  and  violated  women.  All  this  must 
of  course  take  place  in  any  war.  There  will  be  the 
general  murder  and  robbery  committed  on  account  of 
the  nation,  and  the  particular  murder  and  robbery 
on  account  of  the  special  individual.  This  also  is 
to  be  expected.  You  cannot  set  a  town  on  fire 
and'  burn  down  just  half  of  it,  making  the 
flames  stop  exactly  where  you  will.  You  cannot  take 

the  most  idle,  ignorant,  drunkenj  and  vicious  men  out 
XIII— 2 


18  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

of  the  low  population  in  our  cities  and  large  towns, 
get  them  drunk  enough  or  foolish  enough  to  enlist, 
train  them  to  violence,  theft,  robbery,  murder,  and 
then  stop  the  man  from  exercising  his  rage  or  lust 
on  his  own  private  account.  If  it  is  hard  to  make  a 
dog  understand  that  he  must  kill  a  hare  for  his  master, 
but  never  for  himself,  it  is  not  much  easier  to  teach  a 
volunteer  that  it  is  a  duty,  a  distinction,  and  a  glory 
to  rob  and  murder  the  Mexican  people  for  the  nation's 
sake,  but  a  wrong,  a  shame,  and  a  crime  to  rob  or 
murder  a  single  Mexican  for  his  own  sake.  There 
have  been  instances  of  wanton  cruelty,  occasioned  by 
private  licentiousness  and  individual  barbarity.  Of 
these  I  shall  take  no  further  notice,  but  come  to  such 
as  have  been  commanded  by  the  American  authorities, 
and  which  were  the  official  acts  of  the  nation. 

One  was  the  capture  of  Tabasco.  Tabasco  is  a 
small  town  several  hundred  miles  from  the  theater  of 
war,  situated  on  a  river  about  eighty  miles  from  the 
sea,  in  the  midst  of  a  fertile  province.  The  army  did 
not  need  it,  nor  the  navy.  It  did  not  lie  in  the  way 
of  the  American  operations ;  its  possession  would  be 
wholly  useless.  But  one  Sunday  afternoon,  while  the 
streets  were  full  of  men,  women,  and  children,  en 
gaged  in  their  Sunday  business,  a  part  of  the  naval 
force  of  America  swept  by ;  the  streets  running  at 
right  angles  with  the  river  were  enfiladed  by  the  hos 
tile  cannon,  and  men,  women,  and  children,  unarmed 
and  unresisting,  were  mowed  down  by  the  merciless 
shot.  The  city  was  taken,  but  soon  abandoned,  for 
its  possession  was  of  no  use.  The  killing  of  those 
men,  women,  and  children  was  as  much  a  piece  of 
murder  as  it  would  be  to  come  and  shoot  us  to-day, 
v  and  in  this  house.  No  valid  excuse  has  been  given 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR  19 

V.  for  this  cold-blooded  massacre ;  none  can  be  given. 
It  was  not  battle,  but  wanton  butchery.  None  but 
a  Pequod  Indian  could  excuse  it.  The  theological 
newspapers  in  New  England  thought  it  a  wicked  thing 
in  Dr.  Palfrey  to  write  a  letter  on  Sunday,  though  he 
hoped  thereby  to  help  end  the  war.  How  many  of 
them  had  any  fault  to  find  with  this  national  butchery 
on  the  Lord's  day  ?  Fighting  is  bad  enough  any  day  ; 
fighting  for  mere  pay,  or  glory,  or  the  love  of  fight 
ing,  is  a  wicked  thing;  but  to  fight  on  that  day  when 
the  whole  Christian  world  kneels  to  pray  in  the  name 
of  the  Peacemaker;  to  butcher  men  and  women  and 
children,  when  they  are  coming  home  from  church, 
with  prayer-books  in  their  hands,  seems  an  aggravation 
even  of  murder;  a  cowardly  murder,  which  a  Hessian 
would  have  been  ashamed  of.  "  But,  'twas  a  famous 
victory." 

One  other  instance,  of  at  least  apparent .  wanton 
ness,  took  place  at  the  bombardment  of  Vera  Cruz. 
After  the  siege  had  gone  on  for  awhile,  the  foreign 
consuls  in  the  town,  "  moved,"  as  they  say,  "  by  the 
feeling  of  humanity  excited  in  their  hearts  by  the 
frightful  results  of  the  bombardment  of  the  city,"  re 
quested  that  the  women  and  children  might  be  allowed 
to  leave  the  city,  and  not  stay  to  be  shot.  The  Amer 
ican  general  refused ;  they  must  stay  and  be  shot. 

Perhaps  you  have  not  an  adequate  conception  of 
the  effect  produced  by  bombarding  a  town.  Let  me 
interest  you  a  little  in  the  details  thereof.  Vera  Cruz 
is  about  as  large  as  Boston  was  in  1810;  it  contains 
about  30,000  inhabitants.  In  addition,  it  is  protected 
by  a  castle,  the  celebrated  fortress  of  St.  Juan  d'Ulloa, 
furnished  with  more  than  5,000  soldiers  and  over  400 
cannons.  Imagine  to  yourself  Boston  as  it  was  forty 


20  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

years  ago,  invested  with  a  fleet  on  one  side  and  an 
army  of  15,000  men  on  the  land,  both  raining  cannon- 
balls  and  bomb-shells  upon  your  houses ;  shattering 
them  to  fragments,  exploding  in  your  streets,  churches, 
houses,  cellars,  mingling  men,  women,  and  children  in 
one  promiscuous  murder.  Suppose  this  to  continue 
five  days  and  nights ;  imagine  the  condition  of  the  city ; 
the  ruins,  the  flames ;  the  dead,  the  wounded,  the  wid 
ows,  the  orphans ;  think  of  the  fears  of  the  men  antici 
pating  the  city  would  be  sacked  by  a  merciless  soldiery  ; 
think  of  the  women !  Thus  you  will  have  a  faint  no 
tion  of  the  picture  of  Vera  Cruz  at  the  end  of  March, 
1847.  Do  you  know  the  meaning  of  the  name  of 
the  city?  Vera  Cruz  is  the  True  Cross.  "See  how 
these  Christians  love  one  another."  The  Americans 
\are  followers  of  the  Prince  of  Peace;  they  have  more 
[missionaries  amongst  the  "  heathen  "  than  any  other 
nation,  and  the  President,  in  his  last  message,  says, 
"  No  country  has  been  so  much  favored,  or  should 
acknowledge  with  deeper  reverence  the  manifestations 
of  the  Divine  protection."  The  Americans  were  fight 
ing  Mexico  to  dismember  her  territory,  to  plunder  her 
soil,  and  plant  thereon  the  institution  of  slavery,  "  the 
necessary  background  of  freedom." 

Few  of  us  have  ever  seen  a  battle,  and  without  that 
none  can  have  a  complete  notion  of  the  ferocious  pas 
sions  which  it  excites.  Let  me  help  your  fancy  a  little 
by  relating  an  anecdote  which  seems  to  be  very  well  au 
thenticated,  and  requires  but  little  external  testimony 
to  render  it  credible.  At  any  rate,  it  was  abundantly 
believed  a  year  ago ;  but  times  change,  and  what  was 
then  believed  all  round  may  now  be  "  the  most  im 
probable  thing  in  the  world."  At  the  battle  of  Buena 
Vista,  a  Kentucky  regiment  began  to  stagger  under 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR  21 

the  heavy  charge  of  the  Mexicans.  The  American 
commander-in-chief  turned  to  one  who  stood  near  him, 
and  exclaimed,  "  By  God,  this  will  not  do.  This  is 
not  the  way  for  Kentuckians  to  behave  when  called 
on  to  make  good  a  battle.  It  will  not  answer,  sir." 
So  the  general  clenched  his  fist,  knit  his  brows,  and 
set  his  teeth  hard  together.  However,  the  Kentuckians 
presently  formed  in  good  order  and  gave  a  deadly  fire, 
which  altered  the  battle.  Then  the  old  general  broke 
out  with  a  loud  hurrah.  "  Hurrah  for  old  Kentuck," 
he  exclaimed,  rising  in  his  stirrups ;  "  that's  the  way 
to  do  it.  Give  'em  hell,  damn  'em,"  and  tears  of  ex 
ultation  rolled  down  his  cheeks  as  he  said  it.  You  find 
the  name  of  this  general  at  the  head  of  most  of  the 
Whig  newspapers  in  the  United  States.  He  is  one  of 
the  most  popular  candidates  for  the  Presidency.  Can 
nons  were  fired  for  him,  a  hundred  guns,  on  Boston 
Common,  not  long  ago,  in  honor  of  his  nomination 
for  the  highest  office  in  the  gift  of  a  free  and  Christian 
people.  Soon  we  shall  probably  have  clerical  certifi 
cates,  setting  forth,  to  the  people  of  the  North,  that 
he  is  an  exemplary  Christian.  You  know  how  Faneuil 
Hall,  the  old  "  Cradle  of  Liberty,"  rang  with  "  Hurrah 
for  Taylor,"  but  a  few  days  ago.  The  seven  wise  men 
of  Greece  were  famous  in  their  day ;  but  now  nothing 
is  known  of  them  except  a  single  pungent  aphorism 
from  each,  "  Know  thyself,"  and  the  like.  The  time 
may  come  when  our  great  men  shall  have  suffered 
this  same  reduction,  descending,  all  their  robes  of  glory 
having  vanished  save  a  single  thread.  Then  shall 
Franklin  be  known  only  as  having  said,  "  Don't  give 
too  much  for  the  whistle ; "  Patrick  Henry  for  his 
"  Give  me  liberty  or  give  me  death ; "  Washington  for 
his  "  In  peace  prepare  for  war ; "  Jefferson  for  his 


22  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

"  All  men  arc  created  equal ; "  and  General  Taylor 
shall  be  known  only  by  his  attributes  "  rough  and 
ready,"  and  for  his  aphorism,  "  Give  'em  hell,  damn 
'em."  Yet  he  does  not  seem  to  be  a  ferocious  man, 
but  generous  and  kindly,  it  is  said,  and  strongly  op 
posed  to  this  particular  war,  whose  "  natural  justice  " 
it  seems  he  looked  at,  and  which  he  thought  was  wicked 
at  the  beginning,  though,  on  that  account,  he  was  none 
the  less  ready  to  fight  it. 

One  thing  more  I  must  mention  in  speaking  of  the 
cost  of  men.  According  to  the  report  quoted  just 
now,  4,966  American  soldiers  had  deserted  in  Mexico. 
I  Some  of  them  had  joined  the  Mexican  army.  When 
the  American  commissioners,  who  were  sent  to  secure 
the  ratification  of  the  treaty,  went  to  Queretaro,  they 
found  there  a  body  of  200  American  soldiers,  and 
800  more  were  at  no  great  distance,  mustered  into 
the  Mexican  service.  These  men,  it  seems,  had  served 
out  their  time  in  the  American  camp,  and  notwith 
standing  they  had,  as  the  President  says  in  his  mes 
sage,  "  covered  themselves  with  imperishable  honors," 
by  fighting  men  who  never  injured  them,  they  were 
willing  to  go  and  seek  a  yet  thicker  mantle  of  this  im 
perishable  honor,  by  fighting  against  their  own  coun 
try  1  Why  should  they  not?  If  it  were  right  to  kill 
Mexicans  for  a  few  dollars  a  month,  why  was  it  not 
also  right  to  kill  Americans,  especially  when  it  pays 
the  most?  Perhaps  it  is  not  an  American  habit  to  in 
quire  into  the  justice  of  a  war,  only  into  the  profit 
which  it  may  bring.  If  the  Mexicans  pay  best,  in 
money,  these  1,000  soldiers  made  a  good  speculation. 
No  doubt  in  Mexico  military  glory  is  at  a  premium, 
though  it  could  hardly  command  a  greater  price  just 
now  than  in  America,  where,  however,  the  supply 
seems  equal  to  the  demand. 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR  23 

The  numerous  desertions  and  the  readiness  with 
which  the  soldiers  joined  the  "  foe,"  show  plainly  the 
moral  character  of  the  men,  and  the  degree  of  "  patri 
otism  "  and  "  humanity  "  which  animated  them  in  go 
ing  to  war.  You  know  the  severity  of  military  dis 
cipline;  the  terrible  beatings  men  are  subjected  to 
before  they  can  become  perfect  in  the  soldier's  art; 
the  horrible  and  revolting  punishments  imposed  on 
them  for  drunkenness,  though  little  pains  were  taken 
to  keep  the  temptation  from  their  eyes,  and  for  dis 
obedience  of  general  orders.  You  have  read  enough 
of  this  in  the  newspapers.  The  officers  of  the  volun 
teers,  I  am  told,  have  generally  been  men  of  little  edu 
cation,  men  of  strong  passions  and  bad  habits ;  many 
of  them  abandoned  men,  who  belonged  to  the  refuse  of 
society.  Such  men  run  into  an  army  as  the  wash  of 
the  street  runs  into  the  sewers.  When  such  a  man 
gets  clothed  with  a  little  authority,  in  time  of  peace, 
you  know  what  use  he  makes  of  it ;  but  when  he  covers 
himself  with  the  "  imperishable  honors  "  of  his  official 
coat,  gets  an  epaulet  on  his  shoulder,  a  sword  by  his 
side,  a  commission  in  his  pocket,  and  visions  of 
"glory  "  in  his  head,  you  may  easily  judge  how  he 
will  use  his  authority,  or  may  read  in  the  newspapers 
how  he  has  used  it.  When  there  are  brutal  soldiers, 
commanded  by  brutal  captains,  it  is  to  be  supposed 
that  much  brutality  is  to  be  suffered. 

Now,  desertion  is  a  great  offense  in  a  soldier;  in 
this  army  it  is  one  of  the  most  common ;  for  nearly 
ten  per  cent,  of  the  American  army  has  deserted  in 
Mexico,  not  to  mention  the  desertions  before  the  army 
reached  that  country.  It  is  related  that  forty-eight 
men  were  hanged  at  once  for  desertion;  not  hanged 
as  you  judicially  murder  men  in  time  of  peace,  pri- 


24  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

vately,  as  if  ashamed  of  the  deed,  in  the  corner  of  a 
jail,  and  by  a  contrivance  which  shortens  the  agony, 
and  makes  death  humane  as  possible.  These  forty- 
eight  men  were  hanged  slowly ;  put  to  death  with  pain- 
ful  procrastinations,  their  agony  wilfully  prolonged, 
and  death  embittered  by  needless  ferocity.  But  that 
is  not  all:  it  is  related,  that  these  men  were  doomed 
to  be  thus  murdered  on  the  day  when  the  battle  of 
Churubusco  took  place.  These  men,  awaiting  their 
death,  were  told  they  should  not  suffer  till  the  Amer 
ican  flag  should  wave  its  stripes  over  the  hostile  walls. 
So  they  were  kept  in  suspense  an  hour,  and  then  slowly 
hanged  one  by  one.  You  know  the  name  of  the  officer 
on  whom  tliis  barbarity  rests :  it  was  Colonel  Harney,  a 
man  whose  reputation  was  black  enough  and  base 
enough  before.  His  previous  deeds,  however,  require 
no  mention  here.  But  this  man  is  now  a  general,  and 
so  on  the  high  road  to  the  Presidency,  whenever  it 
shall  please  our  Southern  masters  to  say  the  word. 
Some  accounts  say  there  were  more  than  forty-eight 
who  thus  were  hanged.  I  only  give  the  number  of 
those  whose  names  lie  printed  before  me  as  I  write. 
Perhaps  the  number  was  less ;  it  is  impossible  to  obtain 
exact  information  in  respect  to  the  matter,  for  the 
government  has  not  yet  published  an  account  of  the 
punishments  inflicted  in  this  war.  The  information 
can  only  be  obtained  by  a  "  resolution  "  of  either  house 
of  Congress,  and  so  is  not  likely  to  be  had  before  the 
election.  But  at  the  same  time  with  the  execution, 
other  deserters  were  scourged  with  fifty  lashes  each, 
branded  with  a  letter  D,  a  perpetual  mark  of  infamy 
on  their  cheek,  compelled  to  wear  an  iron  yoke, 
weighing  eight  pounds,  about  their  neck.  Six  men 
were  made  to  dig  the  grave  of  their  companions, 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR  25 

and  were  then  flogged  with  two  hundred  lashes 
each. 

I  wish  this  hanging  of  forty-eight  men  could  have 
taken  place  in  State  Street,  and  the  respectable  citi 
zens  of  Boston,  who  like  this  war,  had  been  made  to 
look  on  and  see  it  all;  that  they  had  seen  those  poor 
culprits  bid  farewell  to  father,  mother,  wife,  or  child, 
looking  wistfully  for  the  hour  which  was  to  end  their 
torment,  and  then,  one  by  one,  have  seen  them  slowly 
hanged  to  death ;  that  your  representative,  ye  men  of 
Boston,  had  put  on  all  the  halters !  He  did  help  put 
them  on ;  that  infamous  vote  —  I  speak  not  of  the 
motive,  it  may  have  been  as  honorable  as  the  vote 
itself  was  infamous  —  doomed  these  eight  and  forty 
men  to  be  thus  murdered. 

Yes,  I  wish  all  this  killing  of  the  2,000  Americans 
on  the  field  of  battle,  and  the  10,000  Mexicans;  all 
this  slashing  of  the  bodies  of  24,000  wounded  men; 
all  the  agony  of  the  other  18,000,  that  have  died  of 
disease,  could  have  taken  place  in  some  spot  where  the 
President  of  the  United  States  and  his  Cabinet,  where 
all  the  Congress  who  voted  for  the  war,  with  the  Bal 
timore  conventions  of  '44  and  '48,  and  the  Whig  con 
vention  of  Philadelphia,  and  the  controlling  men  of 
both  political  parties,  who  care  nothing  for  this  blood 
shed  and  misery  they  have  idly  caused,  could  have 
stood  and  seen  it  all;  and  then  that  the  voice  of  the 
whole  nation  had  come  up  to  them  and  said,  "  This  is 
your  work,  not  ours.  Certainly  we  will  not  shed  our 
blood,  nor  our  brothers'  blood,  to  get  never  so  much 
slave  territory.  It  was  bad  enough  to  fight  in  the 
cause  of  freedom.  In  the  cause  of  slavery  —  God 
forgive  us  for  that!  We  have  trusted  you  thus  far, 
but  please  God  we  never  will  trust  you  again." 


26  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

Let  us  now  look  at  the  effect  of  this  war  on  the 
morals  of  the  nation.  The  Revolutionary  War  was 
the  contest  for  a  great  idea.  If  there  were  ever  a 
j  ust  war  it  was  that  —  a  contest  for  national  exist 
ence.  Yet  it  brought  out  many  of  the  worst  qualities 
of  human  nature  on  both  sides,  as  well  as  some  of 
the  best.  It  helped  make  a  Washington,  it  is  true, 
but  a  Benedict  Arnold  likewise.  A  war  with  a  pow 
erful  nation,  terrible  as  it  must  be,  yet  develops  the 
energy  of  the  people,  promotes  self-denial,  and  helps 
the  growth  of  some  qualities  of  a  high  order.  It  had 
this  effect  in  England  from  1798  to  1815.  True, 
England  for  that  time  became  a  despotism,  but  the 
self-consciousness  of  the  nation,  its  self-denial  and 
energy,  were  amazingly  stimulated;  the  moral  effect 
of  that  series  of  wars  was  doubtless  far  better  than 
of  the  infamous  contest  which  she  has  kept  up  against 
/Ireland  for  many  years.  Let  us  give  even  war  its 
!  due :  when  a  great  boy  fights  with  an  equal,  it  may 
\  develop  his  animal  courage  and  strength  —  for  he 
J  gets  as  bad  as  he  gives ;  but  when  he  only  beats  a 
yittle  boy  that  cannot  pay  back  his  blows,  it  is  cow- 
jardly  as  well  as  cruel,  and  doubly  debasing  to  the 
(conqueror.  Mexico  was  no  match  for  America.  We 
&J1  knew  that  very  well  before  the  war  began.  When 
a  nation  numbering  8,000,000  or  9,000,000  of  people 
can  be  successfully  invaded  by  an  army  of  75,000  men, 
two-thirds  of  them  volunteers,  raw  and  undisciplined ; 
when  the  invaders  with  less  than  15,000  can  march 
two  hundred  miles  into  the  very  heart  of  the  hostile 
country,  and  with  less  than  6,000  can  take  and  hold 
the  capital  of  the  nation,  a  city  of  100,000  or  200,000 
inhabitants,  and  dictate  a  peace,  taking  as  much  ter 
ritory  as  they  will  —  it  is  hardly  fair  to  dignify  such 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR  27 

operations  with  the  name  of  war.  The  little  good 
which  a  long  contest  with  an  equal  might  produce  in 
the  conqueror,  is  wholly  lost.  Had  Mexico  been  a 
strong  nation,  we  should  never  have  had  this  con 
flict.  A  few  years  ago,  when  General  Cass  wanted  a 
war  with  England,  "  an  old-fashioned  war,"  and  de 
clared  it  "  unavoidable,"  all  the  men  of  property  trem 
bled.  The  Northern  men  thought  of  their  mills  and 
their  ships ;  they  thought  how  Boston  and  New  York 
would  look  after  a  war  with  our  sturdy  old  father  over 
the  sea ;  they  thought  we  should  lose  many  millions  of 
dollars  and  gain  nothing.  The  men  of  the  South,  who 
have  no  mills  and  no  ships,  and  no  large  cities  to  be 
destroyed,  thought  of  their  "  peculiar  institutions ; " 
they  thought  of  a  servile  war;  they  thought  what 
might  become  of  their  slaves  if  a  nation  which  gave 
$100,000,000  to  emancipate  her  bondmen  should  send  a 
large  army  with  a  few  black  soldiers  from  Jamaica; 
should  offer  money,  arms,  and  freedom  to  all  who 
would  leave  their  masters  and  claim  their  inalienable 
rights.  They  knew  the  Southern  towns  would  be  burnt 
to  ashes,  and  the  whole  South  from  Virginia  to  the 
Gulf,  would  be  swept  with  fire ;  and  they  said,  "  Don't." 
The  North  said  so,  and  the  South ;  they  feared  such  a 
war  with  such  a  foe.  Everybody  knows  the  effect 
which  this  fear  had  on  Southern  politicians  in  the  be 
ginning  of  this  century,  and  how  gladly  they  made 
peace  with  England  soon  as  she  was  at  liberty  to  turn 
her  fleet  and  her  army  against  the  most  vulnerable 
part  of  the  nation.  I  am  not  blind  to  the  wickedness 
of  England  more  than  ignorant  of  the  good  things  she 
has  done  and  is  doing;  a  paradise  for  the  rich  and 
strong,  she  is  still  a  purgatory  for  the  wise  and  the 
good,  and  the  hell  of  the  poor  and  the  weak.  I  have 


28  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

no  fondness  for  war  anywhere,  and  believe  it  needless 
and  wanton  in  this  age  of  the  world  —  surely  needless 
and  wicked  between  Father  England  and  Daughter 
America;  but  I  do  solemnly  believe  that  the  moral  ef 
fect  of  such  an  old-fashioned  war  as  Mr.  Cass  in  1845 
thought  unavoidable,  would  have  been  better  than  that 
of  this  Mexican  War.  It  would  have  ended  slavery ; 
ended  it  in  blood,  no  doubt,  the  worst  thing  to  blot  out 
an  evil  with;  but  ended  it,  and  for  ever.  God  grant 
it  may  yet  have  a  more  peaceful  tennination.  We 
should  have  lost  millions  of  property  and  thousands 
of  men,  and  then,  when  peace  came,  we  should  know 
what  it  was  worth ;  and  as  the  burnt  child  dreads  the 
fire,  no  future  President,  or  Congress,  or  convention, 
or  party,  would  talk  much  in  favor  of  war  for  some 

^years  to  come. 

The  moral  effect  of  this  war  is  thoroughly  bad.      It 
jwas  unjust  in  the  beginning.     Mexico  did  not  pay  her 

^debts ;  but  though  the  United  States,  in  1783,  acknowl- 
£dged  the  British  claims  against  ourselves,  they  were 
not  paid  till  1803 ;  our  claims  against  England,  for  her 
depredations  in  1793,  were  not  paid  till  1804;  our 
claims  against  France,  for  her  depredations  in 
1806-13,  were  not  paid  us  till  1834.  The  fact  that 

1  Mexico  refused  to  receive  the  resident  minister  whom 
the  United  States  sent  to  settle  the  disputes,  when  a 

\commissioner  was  expected — .this  was  no  ground  of 

vwar.  We  have  lately  seen  a  British  ambassador  or 
dered  to  leave  Spain  within  eight-and-forty  hours,  and 
yet  the  English  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  Lord  Pal- 
merston  —  no  new  hand  at  diplomacy  —  declares  that 
this  does  not  interrupt  the  concord  of  the  two  nations ! 
We  treated  Mexico  contemptuously  before  hostilities 
began ;  and  when  she  sent  troops  into  a  territory  which 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR  29 

she  had  always  possessed,  though  Texas  had  claimed 
it,  we  declared  that  that  was  an  act  of  war,  and  our 
selves  sent  an  army  to  invade  her  soil,  to  capture  her 
cities,  and  seize  her  territory.  It  has  been  a  war  oi 
plunder,  undertaken  for  the  purpose  of  seizing  Mexi 
can  territory,  and  extending  over  it  that  dismal  curs( 
which  blackens,  impoverishes,  and  barbarizes  half  th( 
Union  now,  and  swiftly  corrupts  the  other  half.  It 
was  not  enough  to  have  Louisiana  a  slave  territory ; 
not  enough  to  make  that  institution  perpetual  in 
Florida ;  not  enough  to  extend  this  blight  over  Texas 
• —  we  must  have  yet  more  slave  soil,  one  day  to  be 
carved  into  slave  States,  to  bind  the  Southern  yoke 
yet  more  securely  on  the  Northern  neck;  to  corrupt 
yet  more  the  politics,  literature,  and  morals  of  the 
North.  The  war  was  unjust  at  its  beginning;  mean 
in  its  motives,  a  war  without  honorable  cause ;  a  war 
for  plunder ;  a  quarrel  between  a  great  boy  and  a  little 
puny  weakling  who  could  not  walk  alone,  and  could 
hardly  stand.  We  have  treated  Mexico  as  the  three 
Northern  powers  treated  Poland  in  the  last  century  — 
stooped  to  conquer.  Nay,  our  contest  has  been  like 
the  English  seizure  of  Ireland.  All  the  justice  was  on 
one  side,  the  force,  skill,  and  wealth,  on  the  other. 

I  know  men  say  the  war  has  shown  us  that  Amer 
icans  could  fight.  Could  fight?  Almost  every  male 
beast  will  fight,  the  more  brutal  the  better.  The  long 
war  of  the  Revolution,  when  Connecticut,  for  seven 
years,  kept  5,000  men  in  the  field,  showed  that  Amer 
icans  could  fight ;  Bunker  Hill  and  Lexington  showed 
that  they  could  fight,  even  without  previous  discipline. 
If  such  valor  be  a  merit,  I  am  ready  to  believe  that  the 
Americans,  in  a  great  cause  like  that  of  Mexico,  to 
resist  wicked  invasion,  would  fight  as  men  never  fought 


30  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

before.  A  republic  like  our  own,  where  every  free 
man  feels  an  interest  in  the  welfare  of  the  nation,  is 
full  of  the  elements  that  make  soldiers.  Is  that  a 
praise?  Most  men  think  so,  but  it  is  the  smallest 
honor  of  a  nation.  Of  all  glories,  military  glory,  at 
its  best  estate,  seems  the  poorest. 

Men  tell  us  it  shows  the  strength  of  the  nation,  and 
some  writers  quote  the  opinions  of  European  kings 
who,  when  hearing  of  the  battles  of  Monterey,  Buena 
Vista,  and  Vera  Cruz,  became  convinced  that  we  were 
a  "  great  people."  Remembering  the  character  of 
these  kings,  one  can  easily  believe  that  such  was  their 
judgment,  and  will  not  sigh  many  times  at  their  fate, 
but  will  hope  to  see  the  day  when  the  last  king,  who 
can  estimate  a  nation's  strength  only  by  its  battles,  has 
passed  on  to  impotence  and  oblivion.  The  power  of 
America  —  do  we  need  proof  of  that?  I  see  it  in  the 
streets  of  Boston  and  New  York ;  in  Lowell  and  in 
Lawrence ;  I  see  it  in  our  mills  and  our  ships ;  I  read  it 
in  those  letters  of  iron  written  all  over  the  North,  where 
he  may  read  that  runs ;  I  see  it  in  the  unconquered  en 
ergy  which  tames  the  forest,  the  rivers,  and  the  ocean ; 
in  the  school-houses  which  lift  their  modest  roof  in 
every  village  of  the  North;  in  the  churches  that  rise 
all  over  the  freeman's  land:  would  God  that  they  rose 
higher,  pointing  down  to  man  and  to  human  duties, 
and  up  to  God  and  immortal  life !  I  see  the  strength 
of  America  in  that  tide  of  population  which  spreads 
over  the  prairies  of  the  West,  and,  beating  on  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  dashes  its  peaceful  spray  to  the 
very  shores  of  the  Pacific  sea.  Had  we  taken  150,000 
men  and  $200,000,000,  and  built  two  railroads  across 
the  continent,  that  would  have  been  a  worthy  sign  of 
the  nation's  strength.  Perhaps  those  kings  could  not 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR  31 

see  it ;  but  sensible  men  could  see  it  and  be  glad.  This 
waste  of  treasure  and  this  waste  of  blood  is  only  a 
proof  of  weakness.  War  is  a  transient  weakness  of 
the  nation,  but  slavery  a  permanent  imbecility. 

What  falsehood  has  this  war  produced  in  the  execu 
tive  and  legislative  power;  in  both  parties,  Whigs  and 
Democrats!     I   always   thought   that   here   in   Massa 
chusetts  the  Whigs  were  the  most  to  blame ;  they  tried 
to  put  the  disgrace  of  the  war  on  the  others,  while  the 
Democratic  party   coolly  faced  the  wickedness.     Did  ) 
far-sighted  men  know  that  there  would  be  a  war  on   < 
Mexico,  or  else  on  the  tariff  or  the  currency,  and  pre-y 
fer  the  first  as  the  least  evil? 

See  to  what  the  war  has  driven  two  of  the  most  fa 
mous  men  of  the  nation :  one  wished  to  "  capture  or 
slay  a  Mexican ;  "  the  other  could  encourage  the  vol 
unteers  to  fight  a  war  which  he  had  denounced  as  need 
less,  "  a  war  of  pretexts,"  and  place  the  men  of 
Monterey  before  the  men  of  Bunker  Hill;  each  could 
invest  a  son  in  that  unholy  cause.  You  know  the  rest : 
the  fathers  ate  sour  grapes,  and  the  children's  teeth 
were  set  on  edge.  When  a  man  goes  on  board  an  emi 
grant  ship,  reeking  with  filth  and  fever,  not  for  gain, 
not  for  "  glory,"  but  in  brotherly  love,  catches  the 
contagion,  and  dies  a  martyr  to  his  heroic  benevolence, 
men  speak  of  it  in  corners,  and  it  is  soon  forgot ;  there 
is  no  parade  in  the  streets ;  society  takes  little  pains  to 
do  honor  to  the  man.  How  rarely  is  a  pension  given 
to  his  wTidow  or  his  child ;  only  once  in  the  whole  land, 
and  then  but  a  small  sum.  But  when  a  volunteer  offi 
cer  —  for  of  the  humbler  and  more  excusable  men  that 
fall  we  take  no  heed,  war  may  mow  that  crop  of  "  vul 
gar  deaths  "  with  what  scythe  he  will  —  falls  or  dies 
in  the  quarrel  which  he  had  no  concern  in,  falls  in  a 


32  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

broil  between  the  two  nations,  your  newspapers  extol 
the  man,  and  with  martial  pomp,  "  sonorous  metal 
blowing  martial  sounds,"  with  all  the  honors  of  the 
most  honored  dead,  you  lay  away  his  body  in  the 
tomb.  Thus  is  it  that  the  nation  teaches  these  little 
ones  that  it  is  better  to  kill  than  to  make  alive. 

I  know  there  are  men  in  the  army,  honorable  and 
high-minded  men,  Christian  men,  who  dislike  war  in 
general,  and  this  war  in  special ;  but  such  is  their  view 
of  official  duty,  that  they  obeyed  the  summons  of  bat 
tle,  though  with  pain  and  reluctance.  They  knew  not 
how  to  avoid  obedience.  I  am  willing  to  believe  there 
are  many  such.  But  with  volunteers,  who,  of  their 
own  accord,  came  forth  to  enlist,  men  not  blinded  by 
ignorance,  not  driven  by  poverty  to  the  field,  but  only 
by  hope  of  reward  —  what  shall  be  said  of  them  ? 
Much  may  be  said  to  excuse  the  rank  and  file,  ignorant 
men,  many  of  them  in  want  —  but  for  the  leaders, 
what  can  be  said?  Had  I  a  brother  who,  in  the  day 
of  the  nation's  extremity,  came  forward  with  a  good 
conscience,  and  periled  his  life  on  the  battle-field,  and 
lost  it  "  in  the  sacred  cause  of  God  and  his  country," 
I  would  honor  the  man,  and  when  his  dust  came  home, 
I  would  lay  it  away  with  his  fathers' ;  with  sorrow  in 
deed,  but  with  thankfulness  of  heart  that,  for  con 
science'  sake,  he  was  ready  even  to  die.  But  had  I 
a  brother  who,  merely  for  his  pay,  or  hope  of  fame, 
had  voluntarily  gone  down  to  fight  innocent  men,  to 
plunder  their  territory,  and  lost  his  life  in  that  feloni 
ous  essay  —  in  sorrow  and  in  silence,  and  in  secrecy, 
would  I  lay  down  his  body  in  the  grave;  I  would  not 
court  display,  nor  mark  it  with  a  single  stone. 

See  how  this  war  has  affected  public  opinion.  How 
many  of  your  newspapers  have  shown  its  true  atrocity? 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR  33 

how  many  of  the  pulpits?  Yet,  if  any  one  is  ap 
pointed  to  tell  of  public  wrongs,  it  is  the  minister  of 
religion.  The  governor  of  Massachusetts  is  an  offi 
cer  of  a  Christian  church;  a  man  distinguished  for 
many  excellencies,  some  of  them  by  no  means  com 
mon  :  it  is  said  he  is  opposed  to  the  war  in  private,  and 
thinks  it  wicked;  but  no  man  has  lent  himself  as  a 
readier  tool  to  promote  it.  The  Christian  and  the 
man  seem  lost  in  the  office,  in  the  governor!  What  a 
lesson  of  falseness  does  all  this  teach  to  that  large  class 
of  persons  who  look  no  higher  than  the  example  of 
eminent  men  for  their  instruction.  You  know  what 
complaints  have  been  made  by  the  highest  authority  in 
the  nation,  because  a  few  men  dared  to  speak  against 
the  war.  It  was  "  affording  aid  and  comfort  to  the 
enemy."  If  the  war  party  had  been  stronger,  and 
feared  no  public  opinion,  we  should  have  had  men 
hanged  for  treason,  because  they  spoke  of  this  national 
iniquity !  Nothing  would  have  been  easier.  A  "  gag 
law  "  is  not  wholly  unknown  in  America. 

If  you  will  take  all  the  theft,  all  the  assaults,  all  the 
cases  of  arson,  ever  committed  in  time  of  peace  in  the 
United  States,  since  the  settlement  of  Jamestown  in 
1608,  and  add  to  them  all  the  cases  of  violence  offered 
to  woman,  with  all  the  murders,  they  will  not  amount 
to  half  the  wrongs  committed  in  this  war  for  the  plun 
der  of  Mexico.  Yet  the  cry  has  been,  and  still  is, 
"  You  must  not  say  a  word  against  it ;  if  you  do,  you 
'  afford  aid  and  comfort  to  the  enemy.'  "  Not  tell 
the  nation  that  she  is  doing  wrong?  What  a  miser 
able  saying  is  that ;  let  it  come  from  what  high  author 
ity  it  may,  it  is  a  miserable  saying.  Make  the  case 
your  own.  Suppose  the  United  States  were  invaded 

by  a  nation  ten  times  abler  for  war  than  we  are,  with  a 
XIII— 3 


34  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

cause  no  more  just,  intentions  equally  bad;  invaded  for 
the  purpose  of  dismembering  our  territory  and  mak 
ing  our  own  New  England  the  soil  of  slaves ;  would 
you  be  still?  would  you  stand  and  look  on  tamely  while 
the  hostile  hosts,  strangers  in  language,  manners,  and 
religion,  crossed  your  rivers,  seized  your  ports,  burnt 
your  towns?  No,  surely  not.  Though  the  men  of 
New  England  would  not  be  able  to  resist  with  most 
celestial  love,  they  would  contend  with  most  manly 
vigor;  and  I  should  rather  see  every  house  swept  clean 
off  the  land,  and  the  ground  sheeted  with  our  own 
dead;  rather  see  every  man,  woman,  and  child  in  the 
land  slain,  than  see  them  tamely  submit  to  such  a 
wrong.  And  so  would  you.  No;  sacred  as  life  is, 
and  dear  as  it  is,  better  let  it  be  trodden  out  by  the 
hoof  of  war,  rather  than  yield  tamely  to  a  wrong. 
But  while  you  were  doing  your  utmost  to  repel  such 
formidable  injustice,  if  in  the  midst  of  your  invaders, 
men  rose  up  and  said,  "  America  is  in  the  right,  and, 
brothers,  you  are  wrong ;  you  should  not  thus  kill  men 
to  steal  their  land :  shame  on  you  1 "  how  should  you 
feel  towards  such?  Nay,  in  the  struggle  with  Eng 
land,  when  our  fathers  periled  everything  but  honor, 
and  fought  for  the  inalienable  rights  of  man,  you  all 
remember,  how  in  England  herself  there  stood  up  noble 
men,  and  with  a  voice  that  was  heard  above  the  roar 
of  the  populace,  and  an  authority  higher  than  the 
majesty  of  the  throne,  they  said,  "You  do  a  wrong; 
you  may  ravage,  but  you  cannot  conquer.  If  I  were 
an  American,  while  a  foreign  troop  remained  in  my 
land,  I  would  never  lay  down  my  arms ;  no,  never, 
never,  never !  " 

But  I  wander  a  little  from  my  theme,  the  effect  of 
the  war  on  the  morals  of  the  nation.     Here  are  50,000 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR  35 

j  or  75,000  men  trained  to  kill.  Hereafter  they  will  be 
W>f  little  service  in  any  good  work.  Many  of  them 
were  the  offscouring  of  the  people  at  first.  Now, 
these  men  have  tasted  the  idleness,  the  intemperance, 
the  debauchery  of  a  camp;  tasted  of  its  riot,  tasted  of 
its  blood !  They  will  come  home  before  long,  hirelings 
of  murder.  What  will  their  influence  be  as  fathers, 
husbands?  The  nation  taught  them  to  fight  and  plun 
der  the  Mexicans  for  the  nation's  sake;  the  governor 
of  Massachusetts  called  on  them  in  the  name  of  "  pa 
triotism  "  and  "  humanity  "  to  enlist  for  that  work : 
Jbut  ifjjwith,  no  justice  on  our  side,  it  is  humane  and 
patriotic  to  fight  and  plunder  the  Mexicans  on  the 
'•-nation's  account,  why  not  for  the  soldier  to  fight  and 
plunder  an  American  on  his  own  account?  Aye,  why 
not?  —  that  is  a  distinction  too  nice  for  common 
minds ;  by  far  too  nice  for  mine. 

See  the  effect  on  the  nation.     We  have  just  plun 
dered  Mexico ;  taken  a  piece  of  her  territory  larger 
than  the  thirteen  states  which  fought  the  Revolution, 
a  hundred  times  as  large  as  Massachusetts ;  we  have 
burnt  her  cities,  have  butchered  her  men,  have  been 
victorious  in  every  contest.     The  Mexicans  were  as  un- 
vprotected  women ;  we,  armed  men.      See  how  the  lust 
f  of  conquest  will  increase.      Soon  it  will  be  the  ambi- 
\tion  of  the  next  President  to  extend  the  "  area  of  free 
dom  "  a  little  further  south ;  the  lust  of  conquest  will 
(increase.     Soon  we  must  have  Yucatan,  Cejiixal-Aaier- 
Jica,  all  of  Mexico,  Cuba,  Porto  Rico,  Hayti,  Jamaica 
^—  all   the   islands    of   the    Gulf.     Many    men    would 
gladly,  I  doubt  not,  extend  the  "  area  of  freedom  "  so 
as  to  include  the   free  blacks   of  those  islands.     We 
have  long  looked  with  jealous   eyes   on  West  Indian 
emancipation  —  hoping  the  scheme  would  not  succeed. 


36  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

How  pleasant  it  would  be  to  re-establish  slavery  in 
Hayti  and  Jamaica,  in  all  the  islands  whence  the  gold 
of  England  or  the  ideas  of  France  have  driven  it  out. 
If  the  South  wants  this,  would  the  North  object?  The 
possession  of  the  West  Indies  would  bring  much  money 
to  New  England,  and  what  is  the  value  of  freedom 
compared  to  coffee  and  sugar  and  cotton? 

I  must  say  one  word  of  the  effect  this  war  has  had 
on  political  parties.  By  the  parties  I  mean  the  leaders 
thereof,  the  men  that  control  the  parties.  The  effect 
on  the  Democratic  party,  on  the  majority  of  Con 
gress,  on  the  most  prominent  men  of  the  nation,  has 
been  mentioned  before.  It  has  shut  their  eyes  to  truth 
and  justice;  it  has  filled  their  mouths  with  injustice 
and  falsehood.  It  has  made  one  man  "  available  "  for 
the  Presidency  who  was  only  known  before  as  a  sa 
gacious  general,  that  fought  against  the  Indians  in 
Florida,  and  acquired  a  certain  reputation  by  the  use 
of  bloodhounds,  a  reputation  which  was  rather  unen 
viable,  even  in  America.  The  battles  in  northern 
Mexico  made  him  conspicuous,  and  now  he  is  seized 
on  as  an  engine  to  thrust  one  corrupt  party  out  of 
power,  and  to  lift  in  another  party,  I  will  not  say  less 
corrupt,  I  wish  I  could;  it  were  difficult  to  think  it 
more  so.  This  latter  party  has  been  conspicuous  for 
its  opposition  to  a  military  man  as  ruler  of  a  free 
people ;  recently  it  has  been  smitten  with  sudden  ad 
miration  for  military  men,  and  military  success,  and 
tells  the  people,  without  a  blush,  that  a  military  man 
fresh  from  a  fight  which  he  disapproved  of,  is  most 
likely  to  restore  peace,  "  because  most  familiar  with 
the  evils  of  war!"  In  Massachusetts  the  prevalent 
political  party,  as  such,  for  some  years,  seems  to  have 
had  no  moral  principle;  however,  it  had  a  prejudice 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR  37 

in  favor  of  decency :  now  it  has  thrown  that  overboard, 
and  has  not  even  its  respectability  left.  What  are  its 
"resolutions?"  Some  men  knew  what  they  were 
worth  long  ago;  now  all  men  can  see  what  they  are 
worth. 

The  cost  of  the  war  in  money  and  men  I  have  tried 
to  calculate,  but  the  effect  on  the  morals  of  the  people, 
on  the  press,  the  pulpit,  and  the  parties,  and  through 
them  on  the  rising  generation,  it  is  impossible  to  tell. 
I  have  only  faintly  sketched  the  outline  of  that.  The 
effect  of  the  war  on  Mexico  herself,  we  can  dimly  see 
in  the  distance.  The  Government  of  the  United  States 
has  wilfully,  wantonly  broken  the  peace  of  the  conti 
nent.  The  Revolutionary  War  was  unavoidable;  but 
for  this  invasion  there  is  no  excuse.  That  God,  whose 
providence  watches  over  the  falling  nation  as  the  fall 
ing  sparrow,  and  whose  comprehensive  plans  are  now 
advanced  by  the  righteousness  and  now  by  the  wrath 
of  man ;  He  who  stilleth  the  waves  of  the  sea  and  the 
tumult  of  the  people,  will  turn  all  this  wickedness  to 
account  in  the  history  of  man  —  of  that  I  have  no 
doubt.  But  that  is  no  excuse  for  American  crime.  A 
greater  good  lay  within  our  grasp,  and  we  spurned  it 
away. 

Well,  before  long  the  soldiers  will  come  back,  such 
as  shall  ever  come  —  the  regulars  and  volunteers,  the 
husbands  of  the  women  whom  your  charity  fed  last 
winter,  housed  and  clad  and  warmed.  They  will  come 
back.  Come,  New  England,  with  your  posterity  of 
States,  go  forth  to  meet  your  sons  returning  all  "  cov 
ered  with  imperishable  honors."  Come,  men,  to  meet 
your  fathers,  brothers.  Come,  women,  to  your  hus 
bands  and  your  lovers ;  come.  But  what !  is  that  the 
body  of  men  who  a  year  or  two  ago  went  forth  so  full 


38  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

of  valor  and  of  rum?  Are  these  rags  the  imperish 
able  honors  that  cover  them?  Here  is  not  half  the 
whole.  Where  is  the  wealth  they  hoped  from  the  spoil 
of  churches?  But  the  men  —  "Where  is  my  hus 
band?"  says  one;  "And  my  son?"  says  another. 
"  They  fell  at  Jalapa,  one,  and  one  at  Cerro  Gordo ; 
but  they  fell  covered  with  imperishable  honor,  for 
'twas  a  famous  victory."  "  Where  is  my  lover? " 
screams  a  woman  whom  anguish  makes  respectable, 
spite  of  her  filth  and  ignorance ;  — "  And  our  father, 
where  is  he?  "  scream  a  troop  of  half -starved  children, 
staring  through  their  dirt  and  rags.  "  One  died  of 
the  vomit  at  Vera  Cruz.  Your  father,  little  ones,  we 
scourged  the  naked  man  to  death  at  Mixcoac." 

But  that  troop  which  is  left,  who  are  in  the  arms  of 
wife  and  child,  they  are  the  best  sermon  against  war; 
this  has  lost  an  arm  and  that  a  leg;  half  are  maimed 
in  battle  or  sickened  with  the  fever ;  all  polluted  with 
the  drunkenness,  idleness,  debauchery,  lust,  and  mur 
der  of  a  camp.  Strip  off  this  man's  coat,  and  count 
the  stripes  welted  into  his  flesh,  stripes  laid  on 
by  demagogues  that  love  the  people  — "  the  dear 
people ! "  See  how  affectionately  the  war-makers 
branded  the  "  dear  soldiers  "  with  a  letter  D,  with  a 
red-hot  iron,  in  the  cheek.  The  flesh  will  quiver  as 
the  irons  burn ;  no  matter :  it  is  only  for  love  of  the 
people  that  all  this  is  done,  and  we  are  all  of  us  cov 
ered  with  imperishable  honors !  D  stands  for  deserter 
—  aye,  and  for  demagogue  —  yes,  and  for  demon  too. 
Many  a  man  shall  come  home  with  but  half  of  himself, 
half  his  body,  less  than  half  his  soul. 

"  Alas !  the  mother  that  him  bare, 
If  she  could  stand  in  presence  there, 
In  that  wan  cheek  and  wasted  air, 
She  would  not  know  her  child." 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR  59 

"  Better,"  you  say,  "  for  us  better,  and  for  them 
selves  better  by  far,  if  they  had  left  that  remnant 
of  a  body  in  the  common  ditch  where  the  soldier  finds 
his  '  bed  of  honor ; '  better  have  fed  therewith  the  vul 
tures  of  a  foreign  soil  than  thus  come  back."  No ; 
better  come  back,  and  live  here,  mutilated,  scourged, 
branded,  a  cripple,  a  pauper,  a  drunkard,  and  a  felon ; 
better  darken  the  windows  of  the  jail,  and  blot  the  gal 
lows  with  unusual  shame,  to  teach  us  all  that  such  is 
war,  and  such  the  results  of  every  "  famous  victory," 
such  the  imperishable  honors  that  it  brings,  and  how 
the  war-makers  love  the  men  they  rule ! 

O  Christian  America!  O  New  England,  child  of 
the  Puritans !  Cradled  in  the  wilderness,  thy  swad 
dling  garments  stained  with  martyrs'  blood,  hearing 
in  thy  youth  the  war-whoop  of  the  savage  and  thy 
mother's  sweet  and  soul-composing  hymn: 

"  Hush,  my  child,  lie  still  and  slumber, 

Holy  angels  guard  thy  bed; 
Heavenly  blessings,  without  number, 
Rest  upon  thine  infant  head." 

Come,  New  England,  take  the  old  banners  of  thy 
conquering  host,  the  standards  borne  at  Monterey, 
Palo  Alto,  Buena  Vista,  Vera  Cruz,  the  "  glorious 
stripes  and  stars  "  that  waved  over  the  walls  of  Churu- 
busco,  Contreras,  Puebla,  Mexico  herself,  flags  black 
ened  with  battle  and  stiffened  with  blood,  pierced  by 
the  lances  and  torn  with  the  shot ;  bring  them  into  thy 
churches,  hang  them  up  over  altar  and  pulpit,  and  let 
little  children,  clad  in  white  raiment  and  crowned  with 
flowers,  come  and  chant  their  lessons  for  the  day. 

"  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart,  for  they  shall  see 
God. 


40  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

"  Blessed  are  the  peacemakers,  for  they  shall  be 
called  the  children  of  God." 

Then  let  the  priest  say,  "  Righteousness  exalteth  a 
nation,  but  sin  is  a  reproach  unto  any  people.  Blessed 
is  the  Lord  my  strength,  which  teacheth  my  hands  to 
war,  and  my  fingers  to  fight.  Happy  is  that  people 
that  is  in  such  a  case.  Yea,  happy  is  that  people 
whose  God  is  the  Lord,  and  Jesus  Christ  their  Sav 
iour." 

Then  let  the  soldiers  who  lost  their  limbs  and  the 
women  who  lost  their  husbands  and  their  lovers  in  the 
strife,  and  the  men  —  wiser  than  the  children  of  light 
—  who  made  money  out  of  the  war:  let  all  the  people, 
like  people  and  like  priest,  say,  "  Amen." 

But  suppose  these  men  were  to  come  back  to  Bos 
ton  on  a  day  when,  in  civil  style,  as  having  never 
sinned  yourself,  and  never  left  a  man  in  ignorance  and 
want  to  be  goaded  into  crime,  you  were  about  to  hang 
three  men  —  one  for  murder,  one  for  robbery  with 
the  armed  hand,  and  one  for  burning  down  a  house. 
Suppose,  after  the  fashion  of  "  the  good  old  times," 
you  were  to  hang  those  men  in  public,  and  lead  them 
in  long  procession  through  your  streets,  and  while  you 
were  welcoming  these  returned  soldiers  and  taking 
their  officers  to  feast  in  the  "  Cradle  of  Liberty,"  they 
should  meet  the  sheriffs  procession  escorting  those 
culprits  to  the  gallows.  Suppose  the  warriors  should 
ask,  "Why,  what  is  that?"  What  would  you  say? 
Why,  this :  "  These  men,  they  broke  the  law  of  God, 
by  violence,  by  fire  and  blood,  and  we  shall  hang  them 
for  the  public  good,  and  especially  for  the  example, 
to  teach  the  ignorant,  the  low,  and  the  weak."  Sup 
pose  those  three  felons,  the  halters  round  their  neck, 
should  ask  also,  "Why,  what  is  that?"  You  would 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR  41 

say,  "  They  are  the  soldiers  just  come  back  from  war. 
For  two  long  years  they  have  been  hard  at  work, 
burning  cities,  plundering  a  nation,  and  butchering 
whole  armies  of  men.  Sometimes  they  killed  a  thou 
sand  in  a  day.  By  their  help,  the  nation  has  stolen 
seven  hundred  thousand  square  miles  of  land !  "  Sup 
pose  the  culprits  ask,  "  Where  will  you  hang  so 
many  ?  "  "  Hang  them !  "  is  the  answer,  "  we  shall 
only  hang  you.  It  is  written  in  our  Bible  that  one 
murder  makes  a  villain,  millions  a  hero.  We  shall 
feast  these  men  full  of  bread  and  wine ;  shall  take  their 
leader,  a  rough  man  and  a  ready,  one  who  by  perpetual 
robbery  holds  a  hundred  slaves  and  more,  and  make 
him  a  king  over  all  the  land.  But  as  you  only  burnt, 
robbed,  and  murdered  on  so  small  a  scale,  and  without 
the  command  of  the  President  or  the  Congress,  we 
shall  hang  you  by  the  neck.  Our  governor  ordered 
these  men  to  go  and  burn  and  rob  and  kill;  now  he 
orders  you  to  be  hanged,  and  you  must  not  ask  any 
more  questions,  for  the  hour  is  already  come." 

To  make  the  whole  more  perfect  —  suppose  a  na 
tive  of  Loo-Choo,  converted  to  Christianity  by  your 
missionaries  in  his  native  land,  had  come  hither  to 
have  "  the  way  of  God  "  "  expounded  unto  him  more 
perfectly,"  that  he  might  see  how  these  Christians  love 
one  another.  Suppose  he  should  be  witness  to  a  scene 
like  this ! 

To  men  who  know  the  facts  of  war,  the  wickedness 
of  this  particular  invasion  and  its  wide-extending  con 
sequences,  I  fear  that  my  words  will  seem  poor  and 
cold  and  tame.  I  have  purposely  mastered  my  emo 
tion,  telling  only  my  thought.  I  have  uttered  no  de 
nunciation  against  the  men  who  caused  this  destruc 
tion  of  treasure,  this  massacre  of  men,  this  awful 


42  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

degradation  of  the  moral  sense.  The  respectable  men 
of  Boston  — "  the  men  of  property  and  standing  " 
all  over  the  State,  the  men  that  commonly  control  the 
politics  of  New  England  —  tell  you  that  they  dislike 
the  war.  But  they  re-elect  the  men  who  made  it.  Has 
a  single  man  in  all  New  England  lost  his  seat  in  any 
office  because  he  favored  the  war?  Not  a  man.  Have 
you  ever  known  a  Northern  merchant  who  would  not 
let  his  ship  for  the  war,  because  the  war  was  wicked 
and  he  a  Christian?  Have  you  ever  known  a  North 
ern  manufacturer  who  would  not  sell  a  kernel  of  pow 
der,  nor  a  cannon-ball,  nor  a  coat,  nor  a  shirt  for  the 
war?  Have  you  ever  known  a  capitalist,  a  man  who 
lives  by  letting  money,  refuse  to  lend  money  for  the 
war  because  the  war  was  wicked?  Not  a  merchant, 
not  a  manufacturer,  not  a  capitalist.  A  little  money 
-  it  can  buy  up  whole  hosts  of  men.  Virginia  sells 
her  negroes;  what  does  New  England  sell?  There  was 
once  a  man  in  Boston,  a  rich  man  too,  not  a  very 
great  man,  only  a  good  one  who  loved  his  country,  and 
there  was  another  poor  man  here,  in  the  times  that 
tried  men's  souls ;  but  there  was  not  money  enough  in 
all  England,  not  enough  promise  of  honors,  to  make 
Hancock  and  Adams  false  to  their  sense  of  right.  Is 
our  soil  degenerate,  and  have  we  lost  the  breed  of 
noble  men? 

No,  I  have  not  denounced  the  men  who  directly 
made  the  war,  or  indirectly  egged  the  people  on.  Par 
don  me,  thou  prostrate  Mexico,  robbed  of  more  than 
half  thy  soil,  that  America  may  have  more  slaves ;  thy 
cities  burned,  thy  children  slain,  the  streets  of  thy  capi 
tal  trodden  by  the  alien  foot,  but  still  smoking  with 
tliy  children's  blood ;  pardon  me  if  I  seem  to  have  for 
gotten  thee !  And  you,  ye  butchered  Americans,  slain 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR  43 

by  the  vomito,  the  gallows,  and  the  sword;  you,  ye 
maimed  and  mutilated  men,  who  shall  never  again  join 
hands  in  prayer,  never  kneel  to  God  once  more  upon 
the  limbs  He  made  you ;  you,  ye  widows,  orphans  of 
these  butchered  men,  far  off  in  that  more  sunny  South, 
here  in  our  own  fair  land ;  pardon  me  that  I  seem  to 
forget  your  wrongs !  And  thou,  my  Country,  my 
own,  my  loved,  my  native  land,  thou  child  of  great 
ideas  and  mother  of  many  a  noble  son,  dishonored  now, 
thy  treasure  wasted,  thy  children  killed  or  else  made 
murderers,  thy  peaceful  glory  gone,  thy  government 
made  to  pimp  and  pander  for  lust  of  crime;  forgive 
me  that  I  seem  over-gentle  to  the  men  who  did  and  do 
the  damning  deed  which  wastes  thy  treasure,  spills  thy 
blood,  and  stains  thine  honor's  sacred  fold !  And  you, 
ye  sons  of  men  everywhere,  thou  child  of  God,  man 
kind,  whose  latest,  fairest  hope  is  planted  here  in  this 
New  World, —  forgive  me  if  I  seem  gentle  to  thy  ene 
mies,  and  to  forget  the  crime  that  so  dishonors  man, 
and  makes  this  ground  a  slaughter-yard  of  men  — 
slain,  too,  in  furtherance  of  the  basest  wish!  I  have 
no  words  to  tell  the  pity  that  I  feel  for  them  that  did 
the  deed.  I  only  say,  "  Father,  forgive  them,  for  they 
know  full  well  the  sin  they  do ! " 

A  sectarian  church  could  censure  a  general  for 
holding  his  candle  in  a  Catholic  cathedral ;  it  was  "  a 
candle  to  the  pope ;  "  yet  never  dared  to  blame  the 
war.  While  we  loaded  a  ship  of  war  with  corn,  and 
sent  off  the  Macedonian  to  Cork,  freighted  by  private 
bounty  to  feed  the  starving  Irishman,  the  State  sent 
her  ships  to  Vera  Cruz,  in  a  cause  most  unholy,  to 
bombard,  to  smite,  and  to  kill.  Father!  forgive  the 
State ;  forgive  the  Church.  It  was  an  ignorant  State. 
It  was  a  silent  Church  —  a  poor,  dumb  dog,  that  dared 


44  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

not  bark  at  the  wolf  who  prowls  about  the  fold,  but 
only  at  the  lamb. 

Yet  ye  leaders  of  the  land,  know  this, —  that  the 
blood  of  thirty  thousand  men  cries  out  of  the  ground 
against  you.  Be  it  your  folly  or  your  crime,  still 
cries  the  voice,  "  Where  is  thy  brother?  "  That  thirty 
thousand  —  in  the  name  of  humanity  I  ask,  "  Where 
are  they?  "  In  the  name  of  justice  I  answer,  "  You 
slew  them ! " 

It  was  not  the  people  who  made  this  war.  They 
have  often  enough  done  a  foolish  thing.  But  it  was 
not  they  who  did  this  wrong.  It  was  they  who  led  the 
people;  it  was  demagogues  that  did  it.  Whig  dema 
gogues  and  demagogues  of  the  Democrats;  men  that 
flatter  the  ignorance,  the  folly,  or  the  sin  of  the  people, 
that  they  might  satisfy  their  own  base  purposes.  In 
May,  1846,  if  the  facts  of  the  case  could  have  been 
stated  to  the  voters,  and  the  question  put  to  the  whole 
mass  of  the  people,  "  Shall  we  go  down  and  fight 
Mexico,  spending  two  hundred  millions  of  dollars, 
maiming  four-and-twenty  thousand  men,  and  butcher 
ing  thirty  thousand;  shall  we  rob  her  of  half  her  ter 
ritory?"  —  the  lowest  and  most  miserable  part  of  the 
nation  would  have  said  as  they  did  say,  "  Yes ; "  the 
demagogues  of  the  nation  would  have  said  as  they  did 
say,  "Yes;"  perhaps  a  majority  of  the  men  of  the 
South  would  have  said  so,  for  the  humanity  of  the  na 
tion  lies  not  there;  but  if  it  had  been  brought  to  the 
great  mass  of  the  people  at  the  North, —  whose  indus 
try  and  skill  so  increase  the  national  wealth,  whose 
intelligence  and  morals  have  given  the  nation  its  char 
acter  abroad, —  then  they,  the  great  majority  of  the 
land,  would  have  said,  "No.  We  will  have  no  war! 
If  we  want  more  land,  we  will  buy  it  in  the  open  mar- 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR  45 

ket,  and  pay  for  it  honestly.  But  we  are  not  thieves, 
nor  murderers,  thank  God,  and  will  not  butcher  a  na 
tion  to  make  a  slave-field  out  of  her  soil."  The  people 
would  not  have  made  this  war. 

Well,  we  have  got  a  new  territory,  enough  to  make 
one  hundred  States  of  the  size  of  Massachusetts.  That 
is  not  all.  We  have  beaten  the  armies  of  Mexico,  de 
stroyed  the  little  strength  she  had  left,  the  little  self- 
respect,  else  she  would  not  so  have  yielded  and  given 
up  half  her  soil  for  a  few  miserable  dollars.  Soon 
we  shall  take  the  rest  of  her  possessions.  How  can 
Mexico  hold  them  now  —  weakened,  humiliated,  di 
vided  worse  than  ever  within  herself.  Before  many 
years,  all  of  this  northern  continent  will  doubtless  be 
in  the  hands  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race.  That  of  itself 
is  not  a  thing  to  mourn  at.  Could  we  have  extended 
our  empire  there  by  trade,  by  the  Christian  arts  of 
peace,  it  would  be  a  blessing  to  us  and  to  Mexico;  a 
blessing  to  the  world.  But  we  have  done  it  in  the 
worst  way,  by  fraud  and  blood ;  for  the  worst  purpose, 
to  steal  soil  and  convert  the  cities  of  men  into  the 
shambles  for  human  flesh ;  have  done  it  at  the  bidding 
fof  men  whose  counsels  long  have  been  a  scourge  and 
a  curse  —  at  the  bidding  of  slaveholders.  They  it  is 
that  rule  the  land,  fill  the  offices,  buy  up  the  North 
with  the  crumbs  that  fall  from  their  political  table, 
make  the  laws,  declare  hostilities,  and  leave  the  North 
to  pay  the  bill.  Shall  we  ever  waken  out  of  our 
sleep?  shall  we  ever  remember  the  duties  we  owe  to  the 
world  and  to  God,  who  put  us  here  on  this  new  conti 
nent?  Let  us  not  despair. 

Soon  we  shall  have  all  the  southern  part  of  the  con 
tinent,   perhaps   half  the   islands    of   the   Gulf.     One; 
thing  remains  to  do  —  that  is,  with  the  new  soil 


46  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

have  taken,  to  extend  order,  peace,  education,  religion ; 
to  keep  it  from  the  blight,  the  crime,  and  the  sin  of 
slavery.  That  is  for  the  nation  to  do ;  for  the  North 
(to  do.  God  knows  the  South  will  never  do  it.  Is 
there  manliness  enough  left  in  the  North  to  do  that? 
Has  the  soil  forgot  its  wonted  faith,  and  borne  a  dif 
ferent  race  of  men  from  those  who  struggled  eight 
long  years  for  freedom?  Do  we  forget  our  sires,  for 
get  our  God?  In  the  day  when  the  monarchs  of  Eu 
rope  are  shaken  from  their  thrones ;  when  the  Russian 
and  the  Turk  abolish  slavery ;  when  cowardly  Naples 
awakes  from  her  centuries  of  sleep,  and  will  have  free 
dom;  when  France  prays  to  become  a  republic,  and  in 
her  agony  sweats  great  drops  of  blood;  while  the 
Tories  of  the  world  look  on  and  mock  and  wag  their 
heads ;  and  while  the  Angel  of  Hope  descends  with 
trusting  words  to  comfort  her, —  shall  America  extend 
slavery?  butcher  a  nation  to  get  soil  to  make  a  field 
for  slaves?  I  know  how  easily  the  South  can  buy  of 
fice-hunters  ;  Whig  or  Democrat,  the  price  is  still  the 
same.  The  same  golden  eagle  blinds  the  eyes  of  each. 
But  can  she  buy  the  people  of  the  North?  Is  hon 
esty  gone,  and  honor  gone,  your  love  of  country  gone, 
religion  gone,  and  nothing  manly  left  —  not  even 
shame?  Then  let  us  perish;  let  the  Union  perish! 
No ;  let  that  stand  firm,  and  let  the  Northern  men 
themselves  be  slaves ;  and  let  us  go  to  our  masters  and 
say,  "  You  are  very  few,  we  are  very  many ;  we  have 
the  wealth,  the  numbers,  the  intelligence,  the  religion 
of  the  land,  but  you  have  the  power;  do  not  be  hard 
upon  us ;  pray  give  us  a  little  something,  some  humble 
offices ;  or  if  not  these,  at  least  a  tariff,  and  we  will  be 
content." 

Slavery  has  already  been  the  blight  of  this  nation, 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR  47 

the  curse  of  the  North  and  the  curse  of  the  South.  It 
has  hindered  commerce,  manufactures,  agriculture. 
It  confounds  your  politics.  It  has  silenced  your 
ablest  men.  It  has  muzzled  the  pulpit,  and  stifled  the 
better  life  out  of  the  press.  It  has  robbed  three  mil 
lion  men  of  what  is  dearer  than  life;  it  has  kept  back 
the  welfare  of  seventeen  millions  more.  You  ask,  O 
Americans,  where  is  the  harmony  of  the  Union?  It 
was  broken  by  slavery.  Where  is  the  treasure  we 
have  wasted?  It  was  squandered  by  slavery.  Where 
are  the  men  we  sent  to  Mexico?  They  were  mur 
dered  by  slavery ;  and  now  the  slave  power  comes  for 
ward  to  put  her  new  minions,  her  thirteenth  President,7 
upon  the  nation's  neck !  Will  the  North  say  "  Yes  "  ? 
But  there  is  a  Providence  which  rules  the  world  — 
a  plan  in  His  affairs.  Shall  all  this  war,  this  aggres 
sion  of  the  slave  power,  be  for  nothing?  Surely  not. 
Let  it  teach  us  two  things :  "  Everlasting  hostility  to 
slavery;  everlasting  love  of  justice  and  of  its  eternal 
right.  Then,  dear  as  we  may  pay  for  it,  it  may  be 
worth  what  it  has  cost  —  the  money  and  the  men.  I 
call  on  you,  ye  men  —  fathers,  brothers,  husbands, 
sons  —  to  learn  this  lesson,  and,  when  duty  calls,  to 
show  that  you  know  it  —  know  it  by  heart  and  at  your 
fingers'  ends !  And  you,  ye  women  —  mothers,  sis 
ters,  daughters,  wives  —  I  call  on  you  to  teach  this 
lesson  to  your  children,  and  let  them  know  that  such  a 
war  is  sin,  and  slavery  sin,  and,  while  you  teach  them 
to  hate  both,  teach  them  to  be  men,  and  do  the  duties 
of  noble,  Christian,  and  manly  men!  Behind  injustice 
there  is  ruin,  and  above  man  there  is  the  everlasting 
God. 


II 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  PRESIDENT 
POLK 

1849 

The  administration  of  Mr.  Polk  took  place  at  an 
important  period  in  the  affairs  of  the  nation ;  it  is 
connected  with  some  of  the  most  remarkable  events 
which  have  happened  in  America  since  the  adoption  of 
the  Constitution  —  events  which  will  deeply  and  long 
affect  the  welfare  of  the  people.  The  time  has  not 
yet  come  when  the  public,  or  any  person,  can  fully 
appreciate  the  causes  then  put  or  kept  in  action.  But 
the  administration  was  so  remarkable,  the  events  con 
nected  with  it  so  new  in  our  history,  and  so  important, 
that  it  seems  worth  while  to  pause  a  moment  and  study 
this  chapter  in  American  politics,  with  such  light  as 
we  now  possess.  It  becomes  the  more  important  to  do 
this  just  as  a  new  Congress  is  about  to  assemble,  while 
the  government  is  connected  with  a  new  President  not 
very  well  tried  in  political  affairs.  In  judging  the 
contemporary  events  of  our  country  it  would  be  ridic 
ulous  in  us  to  pretend  the  same  coolness  and  impartial 
ity  which  it  is  easy  to  have  in  studying  the  politics  of 
times  a  thousand  years  gone  by ;  still,  we  think  we  have 
no  prejudice  against  Mr.  Polk  or  his  administration, 
or  in  favor  thereof;  certainly  we  do  not  look  through 
the  partisan  eyes  of  a  Democrat,  a  Whig  or  a  Free- 
soiler,  but  are  ready  to  praise  or  blame  an  idea,  a 
measure,  or  an  act,  on  its  own  account,  without  asking 
what  political  family  it  belongs  to. 

The  materials  for  the  history  of  this  administration 
48 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  POLK  49 

are  abundant  and  accessible.  We  make  no  pretensions 
to  a  knowledge  of  the  secrets  of  either  party ;  they 
would  be  of  small  value  if  known.  The  volumes  of 
private  and  confidential  letters  of  some  New  York 
politicians,  of  which  so  much  talk  was  made  a  few 
years  ago,  contain  much  matter  for  gossip,  some  even 
for  scandal,  little  for  history,  and  for  political  philos 
ophy  nothing  at  all.  We  neither  seek  nor  welcome 
information  from  such  quarters.  In  politics,  as  in  all 
science,  the  common  and  obvious  facts  are  of  the 
greatest  value.  With  the  secret  history  of  the  Balti 
more  Convention,  of  the  Congress^  or  the  Cabinet,  we 
have  nothing  to  do,  only  with  their  public  acts.  Our 
information  will  be  drawn  chiefly  from  public  docu 
ments. 

Politicians  are  as  honest  as  the  majority  of  men 
would  be,  exposed  to  the  same  temptations,  under  the 
same  circumstances.  The  misdeeds  of  other  men  are 
done  on  a  small  scale  or  in  an  obscure  way,  while  the 
private  character  of  a  politician  becomes  public,  his 
deeds  appear  before  the  sun.  If  the  transactions  of 
State  Street  and  Wall  Street  were  public  as  the  acts 
of  Congress,  men  would  not  think  more  highly,  per 
haps,  of  mercantile  honor  than  now  of  political  in 
tegrity.  A  little  acquaintance  with  political  doings 
shows  that  while  each  party  is,  consciously  or  blindly, 
led  forward  by  its  idea,  and  so  helps  or  hinders  the 
progress  of  mankind,  under  similar  circumstances,  the 
one  has  about  as  much  patriotism  and  political  hon 
esty  as  the  other.  In  point  of  deeds  the  party  that 
has  been  long  in  power  is  certainly  more  corrupt  than 
the  opposite  party,  who  are  limited  by  their  position  to 
longings  and  intentions.  So  the  apples  which  have 
long  been  exposed  for  sale  in  a  huckster's  basket  get 
XIII— 4 


50  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

bruised  with  the  huckster's  attempts  to  show  only  their 
fair  sides,  and  with  frequent  handling  by  the  public, 
and  begin  to  rot  sooner  than  other  apples  from  the 
same  branch,  but  kept  out  of  sight  in  the  barrel,  which 
otherwise  resemble  them  "  as  much  as  one  apple  is  like 
another."  The  party  that  is  full  and  the  party  that 
is  hungry  seldom  differ  much  in  their  political  honesty. 

In  estimating  the  administration  of  men  like  Jeffer 
son  and  Jackson,  men  of  decided  thoughts  or  decided 
deeds,  the  personal  character  and  opinions  of  the  Pres 
ident  are  important  elements  to  be  considered.  But 
Mr.  Polk  was  remarkable  neither  for  thought  nor  ac 
tion  ;  he  had  no  virtues  or  vices  to  distinguish  him  from 
the  common  run  of  politicians,  who  swim  with  the 
party  tide,  up  or  down,  in  or  out,  as  it  may  be.  His 
character  seems  to  have  had  no  weight  in  the  public 
scale,  and  does  not  appear  to  have  given  the  balance 
a  cast  to  either  side.  He  might  follow  a  multitude, 
in  front  or  rear  —  he  could  not  lead.  God  never  gave 
him  "  the  precious  gift  "  of  leading.  For  his  office, 
no  qualities  marked  him  more  than  a  thousand  other 
men  in  the  land.  Like  Mr.  Harrison  and  Mr.  Tyler, 
he  was  indebted  for  the  Presidency  to  "  the  accident 
of  an  accident."  So  the  god  Apis  was  selected  from 
other  bullocks  for  some  qualities  known  only  to  the 
priests ;  though  to  laical  eyes  he  was  nothing  but  a 
common  stot,  distinguished  by  no  mark  and  likelihood ; 
soon  as  selected  he  became  a  god,  and  had  the  homage 
of  his  wrorshipers.  The  nomination  of  the  Apis  might 
be  one  "  not  fit  to  be  made,"  but  when  clerically  made 
it  always  had  the  laic  confirmation,  and  no  Apis  was 
ever  found  too  brute  to  receive  worship. 

It  was  said  in  1848,  that  it  was  not  of  much  conse 
quence  who  was  President  if  he  were  only  a  Whig;  it 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  POLK  51 

did  not  require  much  ability  to  fill  the  office ;  much  ac 
quaintance  with  the  philosophy  of  politics,  nor  even 
much  knowledge  of  the  facts  of  politics ;  nay,  not  any 
eminence  of  character.  Mr.  Polk  was  not  the  first  or 
the  last  attempt  to  demonstrate  this  by  experiment. 

His  private  life  was  marred  by  no  unusual  blemish, 
and  set  off  by  no  remarkable  beauty.  He  kept  the 
Ten  Commandments  very  much  as  other  men;  was 
sober,  temperate,  modest  in  his  deportment ;  what  seems 
latterly  rather  unusual  for  a  President,  he  did  not 
swear  profanely.  On  his  death-bed  he  "  professed 
justifying  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  "  relying 
alone  for  salvation  on  the  great  doctrine  of  atone 
ment,"  and  "  received  the  ordinance  of  baptism ;  "  thus 
he  secured  that  good  name  in  the  churches,  not  yet 
accorded  to  Franklin  and  Washington.  Estimating 
him  by  the  ordinary  standard  about  him  (the  true  way 
to  judge  such  a  man),  he  has  been  set  down  as  an  ex 
emplary  man,  using  his  opportunities  with  common 
fidelity.  Some  official  acts  of  his  were  purely  official. 
His  friends,  since  his  death,  claim  but  little  for  him. 
Eulogies  are  not  supposed  to  limit  themselves  to  tell 
ing  the  truth,  or  to  extend  themselves  to  telling  the 
whole  truth.  Still  they  are  a  good  test  of  public  opin 
ion.  Burr  got  none ;  General  Jackson  had  many ; 
those  on  Mr.  Polk  were  chiefly  official,  and  their  tem 
perature,  for  official  panegyrics,  was  uncommonly  low, 
plainly  intimating  that  little  could  be  made  of  such  a 
subject.  Mr.  Polk  was  hardly  susceptible  of  rhetorical 
treatment  after  death.  While  in  power  he  could 
easily  be  praised.  Excepting  some  of  the  eminent 
leaders,  almost  any  prominent  man  in  the  Democratic 
party,  if  made  President  under  such  circumstances, 
would  have  done  very  much  as  Mr.  Polk  did;  would 


52  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

have  been  merely  a  portion  of  the  party  machine. 
Last  year  the  Whigs  said,  also,  it  was  not  very  im 
portant  what  the  personal  opinions  of  the  President 
were. 

After  eliminating  these  elements,  the  matter  becomes 
quite  simple:  we  have  only  to  deal  with  the  ideas  of 
the  administration, —  the  measures  proposed  as  an 
expression  thereof, —  and  the  acts  in  which  these  ideas 
took  a  concrete  form.  These,  of  course,  will  be  com 
plicated  with  the  adverse  ideas  and  measures  of  the 
other  party.  Such  is  the  theme  before  us. 

However,  it  is  necessary  to  look  a  moment  at  the 
state  of  the  nation  when  Mr.  Polk  came  to  power.  In 
our  foreign  relations  all  was  serene  except  in  the  Eng 
lish  and  Mexican  quarter.  In  the  one  the  weather 
seemed  a  little  uncertain  ;  in  the  other  there  were  de 
cided  indications  of  a  storm. 

In  1842,  Mr.  Webster,  for  a  short  time  dignifying 
the  office  of  Secretary  of  State,  had  performed  the 
most  valuable  public  service  he  has  yet  rendered  his 
country.  He  had  negotiated  the  treaty  of  Washing 
ton  by  which  the  north-eastern  boundary  was  settled. 
That  was  a  very  important  matter,  and  Mr.  Webster 
deserves  the  lasting  gratitude  of  both  nations  for  the 
industry,  courtesy,  and  justice  with  which  he  man 
aged  that  complicated,  difficult,  and  vexatious  affair. 
He  is  often  celebrated  as  the  defender  of  the  Constitu 
tion,  but  his  services  in  that  work,  when  looked  at  with 
impartial  eyes,  diminish  a  good  deal,  and  perhaps  will 
not  be  much  spoken  of  when  a  few  years  have  dispelled 
the  mists  which  hang  over  all  contemporary  greatness. 
It  was  a  real  dignity  and  honor  to  negotiate  the  treaty. 
Certainly  there  were  few  men,  perhaps  not  another  in 
the  nation,  who  could  have  done  it.  We  do  not  mean 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  POLK  53 

to  say  that  a  board  of  civil  engineers,  or  three  good, 
honest  men  could  not  as  well  settle  questions  in  them 
selves  more  difficult.  But  such  was  the  state  of  feeling 
in  England  and  America,  that  none  but  a  distin 
guished  politician  could  be  trusted  with  the  matter, 
and  none  possessed  the  requisite  qualities  in  so  eminent 
a  degree  as  Mr.  Webster. 

There  still  remained  another  affair  to  be  settled 
with  England:  we  refer  to  the  boundaries  of  Oregon. 
That  question  was  purposely  made  difficult  by  small 
politicians  who  exasperated  the  public  on  both  sides 
of  the  water.  The  cry  was  raised  "  Oregon  or  fight ;  " 
"  The  whole  of  Oregon  or  none ; "  "  54,  40."  The 
legislature  of  Maine  went  a  little  further  north,  and 
shouted  "  54,  49."  Some  men,  whose  names  are  by 
no  means  forgotten,  made  a  great  outcry,  and  egged 
the  ignorant  headlong  towards  dangerous  measures, 
threatening  "  war  with  England ; "  men  who,  like 
frogs  in  the  spring  just  escaping  from  their  winter 
of  obscurity,  for  their  own  purposes,  made  a  great  deal 
of  noise  with  very  little  sense.  The  intrinsic  difficulty 
of  the  case  was  very  small.  England  made  large  pre 
tensions  ;  so  did  we ;  both  desiring  a  wide  margin  of 
oscillation  before  they  settled  down  on  a  permanent 
boundary.  But  England  was  pacific,  though  firm,  and 
not  foolish  enough  to  wish  to  fight  with  one  whose 
peace  was  so  profitable.  A  war  between  England  and 
America  is,  on  each  side,  a  quarrel  with  a  good  cus 
tomer.  That  is  the  mercantile  aspect  of  the  case. 
An  administration  which  should  seek  honestly  to  settle 
the  Oregon  question  would  find  no  difficulty;  had  Mr. 
Webster  remained  a  year  more  in  the  Cabinet,  we  doubt 
not  this  affair,  also,  would  have  been  amicably  set 
tled. 


54  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

Affairs  certainly  looked  threatening  in  the  neigh 
borhood  of  Mexico ;  there  were  troubles  past,  present, 
and  to  come.  Americans  had  excited  the  revolution 
in  Texas;  fought  her  battles,  and  fomented  her  in 
trigues.  Texas  had  just  been  annexed,  or,  as  the 
phrase  originally  was,  rtf-annexed.  Texas  and  Mexico 
had  been  long  at  war;  though  not  actively  fighting  at 
the  time  of  annexation,  the  war  was  not  ended.  We 
took  Texas  with  a  defective  title,  subject  to  the  claims 
of  Mexico.  If  she  did  not  prosecute  those  claims  it 
was  because  she  was  too  feeble,  not  that  she  had  relin 
quished  them.  That  was  not  all  —  we  had  insulted 
Mexico  and  deeply  injured  her;  not  by  accident,  but 
with  our  eyes  open,  and  of  set  purpose.  We  had 
wronged  Mexico  deeply,  and  then  added  new  insults 
to  old  injuries.  What  made  our  conduct  worse,  we 
were  powerful  and  Mexico  defenseless.  The  motive 
which  lay  at  the  bottom  of  all  makes  this  accumulated 
baseness  still  more  detestable;  it  was  done  to  establish 
a  bulwark  for  American  slavery. 

To  this  origin  of  the  Mexican  War  we  will  now 
add  a  few  words  respecting  the  scheme  of  annexation. 
In  1803,  Mr.  Jefferson  purchased  Louisiana  of 
France,  a  vast  territory  west  of  the  Mississippi,  for 
$15,000,000.  He  thought  he  transgressed  the  Con 
stitution  in  doing  so,  and  expected  an  "  act  of  indem 
nity  "  by  the  people,  to  justify  the  deed.  The  Senate 
thought  otherwise.  Slavery  was  already  established 
in  Louisiana.  In  1812,  the  present  State  of  Louisiana 
was  admitted  to  the  Union  with  a  constitution  author 
izing  slavery.  In  1820,  a  new  State  was  formed  from 
what  had  been  the  more  northern  portion  of  Louisiana. 
Should  it  be  a  slave  State,  or  free?  The  South,  "  on 
principle,"  favored  slavery ;  the  North,  "  on  princi- 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  POLK  55 

pie,"  opposed  it.  But  both  parties  laid  aside  their 
"  principles "  and  made  a  compromise,  such  as  Mr. 
Clay  and  Mr.  Clayton  so  much  admire.  Slavery  was 
allowed  only  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  36°  40' 
of  north  latitude.  This  was  the  famous  Missouri 
Compromise.  But  only  a  small  part  of  Missouri  lay 
south  of  the  line.  All  the  new  territory,  therefore, 
could  make  only  two  slave  States,  Louisiana  and  Ar 
kansas.  In  1836,  Arkansas  was  admitted  into  the 
Union.  Florida  territory  alone  remained  to  be  made 
into  slave  States.  Thus  the  territorial  extension  of 
the  slave  power  was  at  an  end,  while  vast  regions  were 
left  into  which  the  stream  of  Northern  enterprise  con 
tinually  poured  itself.  The  North  rapidly  increased 
in  numbers,  in  wealth,  and  in  the  political  power  which 
wealth  and  numbers  give ;  the  rapid  rise  of  new  States 
was  to  the  South  a  fearful  proof  of  this. 

The  North  has  always  been  eminently  industrial, 
particularly  eminent  in  the  higher  modes  of  industry, 
work  that  demands  the  intelligent  head.  The  South 
has  always  been  deficient  in  industry,  especially  in  the 
higher  modes  of  industry.  The  North  has  an  abun 
dance  of  skilled  labor;  the  South  chiefly  brute  labor. 
This  industrial  condition  of  the  South  is  to  be  ascribed 
to  the  institution  of  slavery,  though  perhaps  some 
thing  must  be  allowed  for  the  climate,  and  for  the  in 
ferior  character  and  motives  of  the  original  colonists 
who  settled  that  part  of  the  country.  But  while  the 
North  is  industrial,  the  South  is  political;  the  North 
sends  its  ablest  men  to  trade,  the  South  to  politics. 
The  race  for  public  welfare  and  political  power  was 
to  be  run  by  those  two  competitors,  "  not  without  dust 
and  heat."  After  the  Revolution,  the  opposite  char 
acteristics  of .  the  North  and  South  appeared  more 


56  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

prominently  than  before.  The  North  increased  rap 
idly  in  numbers,  and  outpeopled  the  South.  The  Rev 
olution  itself  showed  the  comparative  military  power 
of  the  "  Southern  chivalry  "  and  the  hardy  industry 
of  the  North.  After  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Con 
stitution,  the  North  increased  with  still  greater  rapid 
ity,  and  began  to  show  a  decided  superiority  to  the 
South.  This  is  partly  the  result  of  the  industry  of 
the  North;  but  in  part  the  result  of  our  navigation 
laws,  which  gave  American  bottoms  a  great  national 
privilege.  Most  of  the  ships  belonged,  as  they  still 
do,  to  the  North ;  they  were  the  fruits  of  her  industry. 
Did  the  Constitution  guarantee  slavery  to  the  South, 
it  protected  the  ships  of  the  North.  The  South  got 
a  political  advantage,  and  the  North  a  commercial 
privilege,  whose  value  in  dollars  has  been  greater  than 
that  of  all  the  slaves  in  the  United  States.  In  all  con 
tests  about  money,  the  North  carries  it  over  the  South ; 
in  all  contests  for  immediate  political  power  the  South 
over  the  North. 

Some  thirty  years  later,  the  nation  changed  its 
policy.  It  had  taken  pains  to  encourage  commerce, 
and  had  a  revenue  tariff.  Now  it  took  pains  to  re 
strict  trade,  and  established  a  protective  tariff;  so  the 
North  engaged  in  manufactures  to  a  greater  degree 
than  before.  The  South  could  not  do  this:  the  slaves 
were  too  ignorant,  and  must  remain  so  as  long  as  they 
are  slaves,  otherwise  they  could  not  be  kept  together 
in  the  large  masses  which  manufacturing  purposes  re 
quire;  the  whites  were  too  indolent  and  too  proud. 
The  South  continued  to  increase  constantly  in  numbers 
and  in  wealth,  but  compared  with  the  North,  she  did 
not  increase.  It  soon  became  plain  that  the  political 
center  of  gravity  was  traveling  northwards  continu- 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  POLK  57 

ally,  and  with  such  swiftness  that  the  South  before  long 
would  lose  the  monopoly  of  the  government,  which  she 
had  long  enjoyed  by  reason  of  her  political  character, 
and  which  the  North  cared  little  for  so  long  as  money 
could  be  made  without  it.  The  prosperity  of  the 
North  rests  on  an  industrial  basis,  that  of  the  South 
on  a  political  basis. 

So  the  South  must  contrive  to  outweigh  the  North. 
How  ?  Not  by  industry,  which  creates  wealth  directly, 
and  indirectly  multiplies  men,  but  by  politics.  The 
North  works  after  its  kind,  and  is  satisfied  with  the 
possession  of  commerce  and  manufactures ;  the  South, 
after  its  kind,  rejoices  in  slavery,  and  thinks  to  outwit 
the  laws  of  nature  by  a  little  juggling  in  politics.  Be 
hold  the  results.  To  balance  the  North,  the  South 
must  have  new  slave  States  to  give  her  power  in  the 
Federal  Government.  New  territory  must  be  got  to 
make  them  of. 

Texas  lay  there  conveniently  near.  It  had  once 
been  a  part  of  Louisiana,  as  far  west  as  the  Nueces. 
In  1819,  James  Long  went  from  Natchez  in  Louisiana 
to  Nacogdoches  in  Texas,  and,  on  the  23rd  of  June, 
declared  the  independence  of  the  republic  of  Texas. 
About  two  years  later,  Mr.  Austin  and  his  colony 
went  thither  from  Mississippi,  carrying  their  slaves 
with  them.  In  1826,  another  insurrection  took  place, 
under  Benjamin  W.  Edwards,  and  another  declaration 
of  independence  followed.  At  that  time  the  American 
Government  did  not  interfere  nor  much  covet  the  ter 
ritory.  Texas  was  a  convenient  neighbor,  and  not  a 
dangerous  one ;  slaveholders  could  migrate  thither  with 
their  slaves.  But  in  1824,  the  Mexicans  forbade  the 
introduction  of  slaves,  and  declared  all  free  as  soon 
as  they  were  born  ;  Mexico  refused  to  surrender  up  f ugi- 


58  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

tive  slaves.  In  1827,  Texas  and  Coahuila  were  united 
into  one  State  with  a  constitution  which  allowed  no 
new  slaves,  born  or  brought  thither,  and  in  1829  Mex 
ico  emancipated  all  her  slaves. 

As  Mexico  made  advances  toward  emancipation,  the 
American  Government  began  to  covet  Texas.  In 
1827,  under  the  administration  of  Mr.  Adams,  an  at 
tempt  was  made  to  purchase  Texas,  $1,000,000  were 
offered.  In  1829,  Mr.  Benton  desired  "  the  retroces 
sion."  His  reasons  are  instructive:  —  we  have  now 
4i  a  non-slaveholding  empire  in  juxtaposition  with  the 
slaveholding  Southwest ; "  and  "  five  or  six  new  slave- 
holding  States  may  be  added  to  the  Union."  Yes, 
"  nine  States  as  large  as  Kentucky."  A  Charleston 
newspaper  desired  it  because  "  it  would  have  a  favor 
able  influence  on  the  future  destinies  of  the  South,  by 
increasing  the  votes  of  the  slaveholding  States  in  the 
United  States  Senate.  In  1829,  in  a  Virginia  con 
vention,  Judge  Upshur  said  the  annexation  of  Texas 
"  would  raise  the  price  of  slaves,  and  be  of  great  ad 
vantage  to  the  slaveholders  of  that  State;"  in  1832, 
Mr.  Gholson,  in  the  Virginia  legislature,  thought  "  it 
would  raise  the  price  of  slaves  fifty  per  cent,  at  least." 
To  sharpen  the  public  appetite  for  Texas,  in  1829  the 
cry  was  raised  that  "  England  wanted  Texas ;  British 
merchants  had  offered  to  loan  Mexico  $5,000,000  if 
she  would  place  Texas  under  British  protection."  This 
trick  was  frequently  resorted  to,  but  the  apprehension 
was  groundless.  The  same  year,  the  first  of  Gen. 
Jackson's  administration,  our  minister  offered  $5,000,- 
000  for  Texas;  the  offer  was  rejected.  He  then  of 
fered  a  loan  of  $10,000,000,  taking  Texas  as  collateral 
security;  that,  also,  was  rejected.  He  tried  also,  but 
in  vain,  to  obtain  a  treaty  for  the  surrender  of  fugi 
tive  slaves. 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  POLK  59 

By  1840,  the  State  of  Texas  had  made  large  grants 
of  land  to  various  persons,  some  of  which  had  been 
bought  up  by  Americans.  So  in  addition  to  the  gen 
eral  desire  of  the  slaveholders,  the  owners  of  Texan 
lands  had  a  special  motive  to  stimulate  them.  Joint- 
stock  companies  were  formed  in  the  United  States; 
there  were  the  "  Galveston  Bay  and  Texas  Company ;  " 
the  "  Arkansas  and  Texas  Company ; "  the  "  Rio 
Grande  Company."  These  had  their  headquarters  at 
New  York.  Then  there  was  the  "  Union  Land  Com 
pany,"  and  the  "  Trinity  Land  Company,"  and  others. 
In  Mississippi  and  Arkansas,  attempts  were  publicly 
made  to  excite  the  people  of  Texas  to  revolt.  In 
1830,  candidates  for  Congress  in  Mississippi  were  pub 
licly  catechised  as  to  their  opinion  of  annexation. 
The  same  year  Samuel  Houston  got  up  his  expedition 
to  wrest  Texas  from  Mexico.  In  1832,  Mexico  was 
obliged  to  withdraw  her  troops  from  Texas,  to  sup 
press  disturbances  in  other  quarters ;  emigrants  con 
tinually  went  with  their  slaves  from  the  United  States. 
In  1833,  Texas  organized  as  a  separate  State;  Mexico 
refused  her  assent,  and  sent  troops  which  were  re 
pulsed.  Texan  agents  traversed  the  United  States, 
addressing  public  meetings,  enlisting  troops,  and 
despatching  military  supplies  to  the  revolted  province. 
On  the  2nd  of  March,  1836,  the  insurgents  issued 
their  declaration  of  independence,  and  fifteen  days  af 
ter  adopted  a  constitution  establishing  perpetual  slav 
ery.  Of  the  fifty-seven  signers  to  this  declaration, 
fifty  were  emigrants  from  the  slave  States,  and  only 
three  Mexicans  by  birth.  The  constitution  prohibited 
the  importation  of  slaves  except  from  the  United 
States;  but  every  negro  in  Texas,  or  who  might  come 
there,  was  declared  a  slave ! 


60  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

During  the  war  between  Mexico  and  Texas,  the 
American  Government  took  little  or  no  pains  to  pre 
vent  our  citizens  from  aiding  the  Texans ;  vessels  were 
openly  fitted  out  in  our  harbors,  and  sent  to  war  on  a 
friendly  power,  yet  the  Secretary  of  State  had  the 
hardihood  to  say  that  the  President  (General  Jack 
son  )  "  took  all  the  measures  in  his  power  to  prevent 
it ;  "  Mr.  Van  Buren  said  the  same  thing.  Yet  he  al 
lowed  the  brigadier-general  of  the  Texan  army  pub 
licly  to  advertise  for  volunteers  for  that  army,  in 
North  Carolina,  and  to  enlist  soldiers.  The  Mexican 
minister  protested;  it  was  all  in  vain.  The  President 
sent  General  Gaines  with  an  army  to  lie  on  the  Texan 
frontier,  ready  to  further  the  designs  of  our  citizens 
against  Mexico.  He  was  ordered  to  advance  as  far 
as  Nacogdoches,  if  needful,  and  Mr.  Forsyth  told 
the  Mexican  minister  "  our  troops  might,  if  necessary, 
be  sent  into  the  heart  of  Mexico."  Our  government 
tried  to  force  Mexico  into  a  war  with  us.  American 
troops  were  on  the  soil  of  Mexico ;  her  minister  com 
plained,  and  requested  that  they  might  be  withdrawn, 
the  answer  is  "  No."  Two  days  after  (Oct.  15th, 
1836),  the  Mexican  minister  demands  his  passports 
and  goes  home. 

Mexico  was  too  feeble  to  fight.  Neither  our  in 
fraction  of  a  treaty,  nor  the  insults  added  to  that 
injury,  could  provoke  her  to  a  war.  Other  measures 
were  to  be  tried;  the  American  Government  got  up  its 
"  claims  "  on  Mexico  —  fifteen  in  number. 

On  the  1st  of  March,  1837,  the  Senate  acknowl 
edged  the  independence  of  Texas ;  a  minister  was  sent 
and  one  was  received.  In  August,  1837,  General 
Hunt,  the  Texan  minister,  proposed  annexation.  Mr. 
Van  Buren  was  then  President :  he  has  been  called  "  the 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  POLK  61 

Northern  man  with  Southern  principles,"  though  he 
deserves  the  title  rather  less  than  some  others  not  so 
stigmatized.  The  offer  of  annexation  was  declined: 
Mexico  was  still  at  war  with  Texas ;  the  legislatures  of 
New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  all  the  New  England 
States  had  protested  against  annexation.  In  regard 
to  Texas  Van  Buren  did  not  "  follow  in  the  steps  of  his 
illustrious  predecessor."  During  his  administration 
little  was  done  to  promote  annexation,  nothing  by  the 
government.  The  third  non-slaveholding  President 
did  not  desire  to  extend  the  area  of  bondage. 

In  1841,  the  Whigs  came  into  power  with  the  shout 
of  "  Tippecanoe  and  Tyler  too ;  "  as  Mackay,  an  Eng 
lish  traveler,  has  said,  "  Log  cabins  with  their  songs 
and  speeches,  their  orgies  on  bacon  and  hard  cider, 
had  more  to  do  with  the  election  of  General  Harrison, 
than  had  less  exceptionable  means."  The 
Whigs  then  gave  the  Democrats  an  opportunity,  much 
needed,  to  turn  themselves  out  of  office.  The  nomina 
tion  of  Mr.  Tyler  for  the  Vice-Presidency  was  char 
acteristic  of  the  party.  What  followed  would  once 
have  been  regarded  as  "  judicial,"  a  "  direct  interven 
tion  of  God  "  to  punish  an  artifice.  Mr.  Tyler,  be 
coming  President,  was  true  to  his  former  character 
and  conduct.  He  set  about  the  work  of  annexation 
in  good  earnest.  Commodore  Jones  was  sent  with  a 
fleet  to  lie  on  the  western  shore  of  Mexico  —  to  be 
ready  in  case  of  any  outbreak  with  America.  His 
conduct  shows  the  expectation  and  design  of  our  gov 
ernment.  Mr.  Upshur,  Tyler's  Secretary  of  State,  is 
a  good  exponent  of  the  policy  of  the  administration. 
In  Sept.,  1843,  he  says  "  few  calamities  could  befall 
this  country  [the  United  Sates]  more  to  be  deplored 
than  the  establishment  of  a  predominant  British  in- 


6*  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

fluencc  [of  which  there  was  not  the  least  danger],  and 
the  abolition  of  domestic  slavery  in  Texas!  "  General 
Lamar,  once  president  of  Texas,  had  written  to  his 
friends  in  Georgia  that  without  annexation  "  the  anti- 
slavery  party  in  Texas  will  acquire  the  ascendency 
and  may  abolish  slavery.  .  .  .  The  ma 
jority  of  the  people  of  Texas  are  not  owners  of 
slaves." 

In  October,  1843,  Mr.  Upshur  took  the  initiative 
and  proposed  annexation  to  the  Texans ;  he  told  them, 
(16th  Jan.,  1844),  that  without  annexation  "they 
cannot  maintain  that  institution  [slavery]  ten  years; 
probably  not  half  that  time."  If  Texas  is  not  an 
nexed,  he  says  again,  "  the  people  of  the  Southern 
States  will  not  run  the  hazard  of  subjecting  their  slave 
property  to  the  control  of  a  population  who  are  anx 
ious  to  abolish  slavery."  Mr.  Upshur  was  not  so 
crafty  as  Mr.  Murphy,  his  agent  at  Texas,  who  said, 
"  Take  this  position  on  the  side  of  the  Constitution 
and  the  laws,  and  the  civil,  political,  and  religious  lib 
erties  of  the  people  of  Texas  secured  thereby  (saying 
nothing  about  abolition),  and  all  the  world  will  be 
with  you ;  "  say  "  nothing  which  can  offend  even  our 
fanatical  brethren  of  the  North ;  let  the  United  States 
espouse  at  once  the  cause  of  civil,  political,  and  re 
ligious  liberty  in  this  hemisphere."  A  treaty  was 
made,  but  "  our  fanatical  brethren  of  the  North  "  were 
offended,  and  on  the  8th  of  June,  1844,  the  Senate  re 
jected  it  by  a  vote  of  35  to  16. 

"  The  immediate  annexation  of  Texas "  was  now 
the  favorite  measure  of  the  slave  power.  They  had 
little  fear  but  that,  in  the  next  presidential  term,  they 
could  repeal  the  tariff  of  '42,  but  felt  doubtful  of  the 
success  of  annexation.  Mr.  Upshur  feared  New  Eng- 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  POLK  63 

land ;  had  he  lived  at  Boston,  and  known  the  influences 
then  controlling  New  England,  he  would  have  seen 
there  was  no  reason  for  fear.  A  presidential  election 
was  at  hand;  the  Democratic  convention  was  to  meet 
at  Baltimore  in  May.  Mr.  Van  Buren  was  the  most 
prominent  candidate  of  the  party.  Most  of  the  dele 
gates  to  the  convention  had  been  instructed  to  support 
him.  But  he  was  a  Northern  man ;  while  President  he 
had  not  favored  annexation ;  he  had  lately  written  a 
public  letter  (April  20,  1844),  and  plainly  declared 
himself  hostile  to  annexation.  Mr.  Ritchie,  "  the 
senior  field-marshal  of  Van  Buren's  party,"  forsook 
and  opposed  his  old  friend.  Mr.  Cross,  of  Arkansas, 
"  would  not  vote  under  any  circumstances  for  a  man 
opposed  to  the  annexation  of  Texas ;  "  Van  Buren  was 
"  not  the  proper  person  for  the  party  to  rally  around 
in  the  coming  struggle ;  "  "  nine  out  of  ten  of  our 
friends  think  so."  The  Tyler  committee  wrote  on 
their  card,  as  for  Van  Buren,  "  Texas  has  destroyed 
him ;  "  "  the  last,  best,  and  wisest  counsel  of  Andrew 
Jackson  was  —  the  annexation  of  Texas." 

The  convention  assembled ;  Van  Buren  got  more  than 
a  majority,  but  could  not  get  two-thirds.  Candidates 
were  numerous,  Cass,  Calhoun,  Buchanan,  Tyler,  Te- 
cumseh- Johnson ;  some  even  thought  it  best  to  take 
again  Andrew  Jackson,  gallant  "  Old  Ironsides " ; 
Commodore  Stewart  was  talked  of.  When  the  po 
litical  tide  ebbs  clean  out  of  the  harbor,  strange  things 
appear  on  the  bottom,  only  seen  on  such  occasions. 
Men  thought  it  very  surprising  that  such  a  man  should 
be  spoken  of  —  certainly  it  had  no  precedent,  and  he 
no  political  experience.  Now  the  nomination  would 
not  be  at  all  surprising  or  irregular.  The  Commo 
dore's  letter  looks  silly  enough  now.  But  who  knows, 


64  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

if  only  elected,  that  he  would  not  have  been  as  great 
a  man  as  Mr.  Polk,  nay,  as  Tyler,  or  Taylor?  He 
was  for  "  immediate  annexation,"  and  would  "  throw 
ourselves  on  the  justice  of  our  cause  before  God  and 
the  nations."  Valiant  Commodore !  he  might  have 
been  as  great  a  man  as  Mr.  Polk,  had  the  tide  of  nom 
ination  served  in  his  favor. 

After  all  the  mountainous  labor  of  the  Baltimore 
Convention,  there  came  forth  Polk ;  Mr.  James  K.  Polk. 
Men  wondered.  "Who  the  devil  is  James—-  K- 
Polk  ?  "  said  many  Democrats ;  and  when  told,  they 
thought  it  was  "  a  nomination  not  fit  to  be  made." 
None  of  them  proved  it,  by  facts  and  arguments,  quite 
so  faithfully  as  the  distinguished  author  of  that  phrase 
did  on  a  recent  occasion  at  Marshfield ;  they  left  that 
for  Mr.  Polk  to  do  (not  by  logic,  but  by  experiment), 
and  he  did  —  in  due  time.  Mr.  Van  Buren  was  "  sin 
cerely  desirous  "  for  the  success  of  the  nominees.  The 
Whigs  were  pretty  firmly  united  in  support  of  Mr. 
Clay,  "Harry  of  the  West,"  and  "that  same  old 
coon,"  as  he  has  publicly  called  himself.  He  was  not, 
publicly,  much  opposed  to  annexation,  nor  much  in 
favor  of  it,  and  in  respect  to  that  was  a  pretty  good 
index  of  his  party.  Yet  some  Whigs  were  seriously 
and  conscientiously  opposed  to  the  annexation  of 
Texas  as  a  slave  territory ;  so  were  a  few  Democrats, 
who  constituted  the  moral  element  of  the  party.  Both 
of  these  minorities  have  since  reported  their  presence 
in  the  politics  of  the  land,  indications  of  something 
yet  future.  It  was  a  rash  movement  of  the  Demo 
cratic  party,  this  changing  their  leader  and  their  line 
on  the  very  brink  of  battle,  under  the  guns  of  their 
opponent,  already  put  in  battery  and  ready  to  fire ; 
but  they  were  confident  in  their  strength,  and  so  well 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  POLK  65 

drilled  that  they  only  needed  the  word  of  command  to 
perform  any  political  evolution  or  revolution. 

It  is  curious  to  look  back.  On  the  3rd  of  March, 
1843,  twenty-one  members  of  Congress  solemnly  de 
clared  that  "  annexation  would  be  identical  with  disso 
lution  ;  would  be  an  attempt  to  eternize  an  institution 
and  a  power  of  a  nature  so  unjust  ...  as 
.  .  .  not  only  to  result  m  a  dissolution  of  the 
Union,  .  .  .  but  fully  to  justify  it."  Five  of 
the  twenty-one  were  from  Massachusetts.  The  pro 
test  of  March  3rd  was  not  very  distinctly  remembered 
at  a  later  date  by  every  one  of  the  signers  thereof. 

At  the  other  extreme  was  South  Carolina.  This  is 
a  very  remarkable  State,  and  her  doings  —  we  mean 
the  doings  of  her  lips  —  deserve  a  special  notice.  Be 
fore  the  Baltimore  Convention  of  1844  it  was  neces 
sary  for  that  State  to  speak  out,  her  trumpet  giving 
no  uncertain  sound.  So,  on  the  15th  of  May,  the  peo 
ple  of  Charleston,  who  had  "  forborne  to  give  any  pub 
lic  declaration  of  ...  opinions  and  wishes, 
.  .  .  and  patiently  waited,"  at  length  and  sol 
emnly  "  resolved  "  that  annexation  is  "  an  American 
and  national  measure,  antagonistic  to  foreign  inter 
ference  and  domestic  abolitionism ;  "  "  if  the  treaty  for 
the  recovery  (!)  of  Texas  be  defeated  because  of  the 
increase  it  will  give  to  the  slaveholding  States,  it  will 
be  the  denial  of  a  vital  right  to  them." 

Even  after  the  convention  the  danger  of  the  patri 
archal  institution  is  so  great  that  there  must  be  a 
Southern  convention.  The  South  Carolinian,  of  May 
30th,  said,  annexation  is  "  a  question  not  of  party,  but 
of  country,  and  to  the  South  one  of  absolute  self- 
preservation  ; "  "  under  the  subtle  encroachments  of 
our  old  enemy  of  Britain,  aided  by  the  traitorous  abo- 
XIII— 5 


66  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

litionists  at  home,  .  .  .  her  doom  is  sealed  if  she 
does  not  arise  in  her  might  .  .  .  and  effect  a 
union  with  Texas ;  "  "  England  once  firmly  seated  in 
Texas,  there  is  an  end  of  all  power  or  safety  for  the 
South,  which  would  soon  be  made  another  San  Do 
mingo."  A  convention  of  slave  States  was  to  be  called 
"  to  take  into  consideration  the  question  of  annexing 
Texas  to  the  Union,  if  the  Union  mil  accept  it;  or 
if  the  Union  will  not  accept  it,  then  of  annexing  Texas 
to  the  Southern  States."  The  convention  was  to  offer 
the  Union  this  "  alternative :  "  "  either  to  admit  Texas 
into  the  Union,  or  to  proceed  peaceably  and  calmly  to 
arrange  the  terms  of  a  dissolution  of  the  Union."  A 
meeting  in  the  Williamsburg  district  declared,  quite 
"  in  the  Ercles  "  dialect  of  that  region,  that  "  the  doom 
of  the  South  is  sealed  and  the  dirge  of  our  fair  Repub 
lic  will  ere  long  be  sung  by  liberty's  last  minstrel,  if 
she  does  not  arise  in  her  might  and  effect  a  union  with 
Texas." 

An  "  unsuspected  nullifier "  of  1832  came  out  to 
assure  the  people  that  "  the  political  Moses  [to  wit, 
Mr.  Moses-Calhoun]  is  neither  lost  nor  dead,  but  he 
is  ready  to  follow  the  pillar  of  cloud  by  day,  or  fire 
by  night."  "  True,  there  is  a  Joshua  [Mr.  Joshua 
Polk],  full  of  the  spirit  of  wisdom,  for  that  Moses  has 
laid  his  hands  on  him ;  "  but  "  there  is  still  no  prophet 
in  Israel  like  Moses."  But  somehow  it  seemed  Moses 
had  been  so  long  talking  with  his  Lord,  that  the  Balti 
more  Convention, —  could  not  steadfastly  look  upon  the 
face  of  this  Moses  and  make  him  their  President ;  and 
so,  the  people  of  South  Carolina  wot  not  what  would 
become  of  him,  nor  even  of  themselves  without  Texas. 
A  writer  in  the  Charleston  Mercury  asked,  "  What  is 
the  remedy  for  the  evils  which  afflict  the  South  ?  "  and 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  POLK  67 

is  thus  replied  to  by  a  far-sighted  man  in  the  same 
journal:       "I     answer,     unreservedly,     Resistance  — 
combined  Southern  resistance,  if  you  can  procure  it; 
if  not,  then  State  resistance." 

The  Mercury  exclaimed,  "  Two  thousand  eight  hun 
dred  and  thirty-two  men,  with  arms  in  their  hands,  in 
the  drill-field,  have  expressed  their  decided  determina 
tion  to  sustain  the  measure."  This  was  the  thing  — 
"  combined  Southern  resistance  if  it  could  be  had;  if 
not,  then  State  resistance  "  -  the  resistance  of  South 
Carolina.  In  the  times  of  nullification  in  1832,  the 
great  oath  of  Andrew  Jackson  laid  South  Carolinian 
valor  low  in  the  dust ;  to  accomplish  that  in  1844  it  took 
only  the  common  swearing  of  John  Tyler.  The  only 
aggressive  act  committed  by  the  petulant  little 
commonwealth,  spite  of  the  resolutions  of  its  forty- 
third  regiment,  of  the  "  decided  determination  "  of 
the  "  two  thousand  eight  hundred  and  thirty-two  men 
writh  arms  in  their  hands,"  was  the  expulsion  of  an 
unarmed  gentleman,  Samuel  Hoar,  on  the  5th  of  De 
cember,  who  had  been  sent  from  Massachusetts  to  look 
after  her  own  citizens.  Thus  was  "  abolition "  re 
pelled.  There  are  noble  elements  in  that  State,  and 
some  noble  men.  If  ever  it  becomes  a  democracy  and 
not  an  oligarchy,  if  the  majority  ever  rule  there,  we 
shall  see  very  different  things,  and  South  Carolina  will 
not  be  a  proverb  in  the  nation. 

Mr.  Polk  was  elected.  In  January,  1845,  a  joint 
resolution  for  annexation  passed  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives,  by  a  vote  of  120  to  98,  and  soon  after  the 
Whig  Senate  by  a  maj  ority  of  two  votes ;  it  was 
signed  by  the  President  on  the  1st  of  March.  So  the 
work  of  annexation  was  completed  before  Mr.  Polk 
came  into  power,  though  by  no  means  without  his  aid. 


68  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

If  this  could  have  been  done  justly,  without  extend 
ing  slavery,  few  men  at  the  North  would  have  had 
cause  to  complain.  We  do  not  blame  the  Texans  for 
desiring  independence,  or  achieving  it ;  we  find  no  fault 
with  extending  the  area  of  freedom  over  the  whole 
world.  We  cannot  think  that  Mexico  had  just  cause 
of  war  in  the  bare  act  of  annexation.  But  when  we 
remember  that  America  colonized  Texas  for  the  sake 
of  wresting  it  from  Mexico,  who  would  not  sell  it ;  that 
Americans  got  up  the  Texan  revolution,  and  fought 
it  through,  and  did  all  this  for  the  sake  of  getting 
nine  slave  States  as  large  as  Kentucky ;  that  this  was 
done  secretly,  fraudulently,  with  a  lie  on  the  lips  of 
the  government  —  we  must  say  the  deed  itself  was  a 
base  deed,  and  the  motive  base  and  miserable. 

In  1845,  such  was  the  state  of  foreign  affairs.  In 
all  that  concerned  domestic  welfare,  the  nation  was 
never  so  well  off  before.  There  had  been  a  consider 
able  period  of  remarkable  prosperity.  It  must  be  a 
very  bad  government  which,  in  four  years,  can  seri 
ously  injure  a  nation  like  this,  where  so  little  de 
pends  on  the  central  power.  Mr.  Tyler  appealed 
to  the  judgment  of  posterity  for  his  vindication; 
but  certainly  no  party  was  sorry  when  he  went  out 
of  office. 

During  the  year  ending  June  30th,  1845,  the  im 
ports  of  the  United  States  amounted  in  value  to  $117,- 
254,564;  the  exports  to  $114,646,606.  The  national 
revenue  was  $29,769,133 ;  the  expenditures  $29,968,- 
207.  There  was  a  balance  in  the  treasury  of  $7,658,- 
306.  The  amount  of  public  debt  on  the  1st  of  Oc 
tober,  was  $17,075,445. 

The  distinctive  measures  proposed  for  Mr.  Polk 
were : 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  POLK  69 

1.  "  The   separation  of  the  money   of  government 
from  banking  institutions." 

2.  "  A  tariff  for  revenue." 

3.  "  The  re-occupation  of  Oregon." 

These  measures  were  seldom  submitted  to  a  scientific 
and  careful  examination.  They  were  abundantly  dis 
cussed  in  Congress  and  out  of  Congress,  but  almost 
wholly  in  the  spirit  of  party.  Some  of  them  were 
finally  carried  by  a  mere  party  vote;  measures,  too, 
on  which  the  welfare  of  the  nation  was  thought  to 
depend.  As  we  look  over  the  speeches  made  in  refer 
ence  to  the  tariff  or  the  subtreasury,  we  find  ability 
enough ;  now  and  then  a  knowledge  of  the  sub j  ect 
in  hand,  though  that  is  far  enough  from  common, — 
but  fairness  which  is  willing  to  see  good  in  the  meas 
ures  of  a  political  opponent  we  almost  never  find. 

In  his  first  message  (Dec.  2nd,  1845),  Mr.  Polk 
recommended  the  establishment  of  a  "  constitutional 
treasury  .  .  .  as  a  secure  depository  for  the  pub 
lic  money,  without  any  power  to  make  loans  or  dis 
counts,  or  to  issue  any  paper  whatever  as  a  currency  or 
circulation."  In  conformity  with  this  suggestion, 
a  bill  was  reported  with  a  proviso  called  "  the  specie 
clause  " —  that  all  payments  to  or  from  the  govern 
ment  should  be  made  in  gold  or  silver.  This  bill  passed 
the  House  by  a  vote  of  123  to  64,  the  Senate  by  28 
to  24,  and  went  into  operation  on  the  1st  of  January, 
1847,  though  the  government  did  not  pay  specie  till  the 
1st  of  April  following.  Before  the  end  of  the  year  Mr. 
Polk  could  say  with  truth  (Message,  Dec.  8th,  1846), 
"  that  the  amount  of  gold  and  silver  coin  in  circulation 
in  the  country  is  greater  than  ever  before."  The  banks 
were  kept  from  inflating  the  currency.  The  measure  has 
proved  itself  a  wise  one.  Its  good  effect  in  retaining 


70  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

coin  in  the  country  and  thus  preventing  a  suspension 
of  specie  payment  by  the  banks  during  the  commercial 
crisis  of  1847-1849,  was  felt  throughout  the  land, 
and  is  now  extensively  acknowledged.  The  adminis 
tration  deserves  the  gratitude  of  the  people  for  this 
measure.  But  what  Whig  journal  will  venture  to  do 
justice  to  the  subtreasury! 

Mr.  Polk  also  recommended  a  "  tariff  for  revenue ;  " 
Mr.  Walker,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  presented 
his  scheme  of  such  a  tariff.  In  due  time  a  bill  was 
reported.  There  was  no  impartial  discussion  of  the 
subject  in  Congress,  or  in  the  newspapers.  We  doubt 
that  there  is  a  single  political  or  commercial  journal 
in  the  United  States,  which  would  open  its  columns 
to  a  free  and  full  discussion  of  the  subject  on  the 
merits  of  the  case.  Political  economy  can  hardly  be 
considered  an  exact  science  as  yet ;  but  American  poli 
ticians,  even  the  most  eminent,  with  here  and  there  an 
exception,  seem  ignorant  of  the  conclusions  which  may 
be  regarded  as  established.  Very  few  of  them  seem 
to  study  political  economy  —  even  to  learn  the  facts 
on  which  it  is  based,  still  less  to  learn  the  natural  laws 
on  which  the  material  prosperity  of  the  nation  de 
pends.  It  is  a  tiresome  work  to  instruct  a  great  na 
tion,  and  mankind  seldom  loves  its  school-masters  in 
their  lifetime,  while  it  requires  little  effort  to  swim  with 
the  tide.  In  1827,  the  citizens  of  Boston  "  assem 
bled  to  take  into  consideration  the  proposed  increase 
of  duties ;  "  their  committee  made  a  long  and  very  able 
report  adverse  to  that  increase,  and  very  justly  say:  — 

"  The  success  or  failure  of  the  candidates  for  the  Presidency, 
may  be  of  great  moment  to  the  country,  and  still  greater  to 
those  partisans  whose  political  fortunes  are  depending  on  that 
event;  but  to  the  nation  at  large,  the  evil  or  the  good  which 
may  arise  out  of  the  choice  of  the  one  or  the  rejection  of  the 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  POLK  71 

other,  can  only  be  of  temporary  and  limited  importance,  com 
pared  with  the  wise  and  just  disposition  of  a  question  on  which 
our  whole  foreign  and  domestic  policy  turns,  and  which  may,  in 
its  consequences,  affect  the  stability  and  happiness  of  the  Union 
for  ages  to  come." 

In  1789,  a  moderate  protective  duty  was  established, 
on  all  imported  articles;  in  1816,  a  high  protective 
tariff  was  for  the  first  time  established.  Mr.  Clay  and 
Mr.  Calhoun  were  its  most  important  advocates.  The 
tariff  was  raised  in  1818  and  in  1822,  and  was  made 
much  higher  in  1824.  Mr.  Webster  opposed  it  with  his 
peculiar  ability,  in  a  speech  not  yet  forgotten.  In 
1828,  a  very  high  tariff  was  established  by  what  has 
been  called  the  "  Bill  of  Abominations."  In  1832-3, 
the  tariff  relaxed  a  little,  to  avert  a  civil  war.  Mr. 
Clay  got  his  celebrated  "  compromise  act  "  established. 
The  compromise  lasted  about  nine  years,  till  1842. 
The  tariff  of  1842  was  passed  under  the  administra 
tion  of  Mr.  Tyler.  Mr.  Webster  admitted  it  had  "  its 
imperfections." 

Mr.  Polk  came  into  power  with  the  idea  of  a  revenue 
tariff  in  his  mind.  The  bill  passed  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives  by  a  vote  of  114  to  95,  1  Whig  and  113 
Democrats  voting  on  that  side ;  71  Whigs,  18  Demo 
crats,  and  6  "  native  Americans  "  voting  on  the  op 
posite  side.  It  passed  the  Senate  by  the  casting  vote 
of  the  Vice-President,  who  was  pledged  to  the  measure 
before  his  election.  A  law  of  this  magnitude  has  sel 
dom  passed  any  modern  legislature  with  such  imper 
fect  discussion.  In  the  Senate  only  a  single  man,  Mr. 
Lewis,  spoke  in  defense  of  the  bill.  Certainly  the 
conduct  of  the  friends  of  the  bill  was  eminently  un 
just,  and  the  bill  itself  was  carried,  not  by  its  merits, 
but  by  the  power  of  the  party ;  not  by  force  of  mind, 
but  force  of  numbers. 


72  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

Mr.  Webster  made  a  learned,  and  in  many  respects 
a  very  able,  speech,  though  he  weakened  his  rhetoric 
with  a  little  extravagance,  unusual  with  him, —  against 
the  new  tariff  —  against  its  general  principles,  and  its 
particular  details.  He  said,  in  the  Senate : 

"  The  Treasury  cannot,  in  my  opinion,  be  supplied  at  the  ratio 
which  has  been  stated,  and  is  expected,  by  any  possible,  I  will 
say  passible,  augmentation  of  importations."  "Why,  the  effect 
of  this  bill  is  to  diminish  freights,  and  to  affect  the  navigating 
interests  of  the  United  States  most  seriously,  most  deeply;  and 
therefore  it  is,  that  all  the  ship-owners  of  the  United  States, 
without  an  exception,  so  far  as  we  hear  from  them,  oppose  the 
bill.  It  is  said  to  be  in  favor  of  free  trade  and  against  mo 
nopoly.  But  every  man  connected  with  trade  is  against  it;  and 
this  leads  me  to  ask,  and  I  ask  with  earnestness,  and  hope  to 
receive  an  answer,  at  whose  request,  at  whose  recommendation, 
for  the  promotion  of  what  interest,  is  this  measure  introduced? 
Is  it  for  the  importing  merchants?  They  all  reject  it,  to  a  man. 
Is  it  for  the  owners  of  the  navigation  of  the  country?  They 
remonstrate  against  it.  The  whole  internal  industry  of  the 
country  opposes  it.  The  shipping  interest  opposes  it.  The  im 
porting  interest  opposes  it.  Who  is  it  that  calls  for  it,  or  pro 
poses  it?  Who  asks  for  it?  Who?  Has  there  been  one  single 
petition  presented  in  its  favor  from  any  quarter  of  the  country? 
Has  a  single  individual  in  the  United  States  come  up  here  and 
told  you  that  his  interest  would  be  protected,  promoted,  and 
advanced,  by  the  passage  of  a  measure  like  this?  Sir,  there  is 
an  imperative  unity  of  the  public  voice  the  other  way,  alto 
gether  the  other  way.  And  when  we  are  told  that  the  public 
requires  this,  and  that  the  people  require  it,  we  are  to  under 
stand  by  the  public,  certain  political  men,  who  have  adopted 
the  shibboleth  of  party,  for  the  public;  and  certain  persons  who 
have  symbols,  ensigns,  and  party  flags,  for  the  people;  and 
that  is  all." 

Before  the  passage  of  the  bill,  Mr.  Webster  pre 
sented  in  the  Senate  a  memorial  "  signed  by  every  im 
porter  of  dry  goods  in  the  city  of  Boston,"  against  it. 

Has  the  tariff  of  1846  failed  to  produce  a  revenue? 
has  it  drained  the  specie  out  of  the  country?  has  it 
Jed  to  a  great  extension  of  paper  money?  has  it  pro- 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  POLK  73 

duced  the  confusion  occasioned  by  the  tariffs  of  '16, 
of  '28,  of  '42?  Has  it  impoverished  the  nation?  The 
answer  is  all  about  us!  Still,  by  adopting  the  ad 
valorem  instead  of  specific  duties,  an  opportunity  has 
been  left  for  fraudulent  invoices,  and  great  fraud  has 
been  committed,  doing  a  wrong  to  the  government, 
and  still  more  to  the  fair  and  honorable  merchant. 

The  "  re-occupation  of  Oregon  "  was  recommended 
in  Mr.  Folk's  first  message.  Our  title  to  the  whole 
of  Oregon  territory  was  "  asserted,  and,  as  is  believed, 
maintained,  by  irrefragable  facts  and  arguments ; " 
our  "  claims  could  not  be  abandoned  without  a  sacri 
fice  of  both  national  honor  and  interests,"  and  "  no 
compromise  which  the  United  States  ought  to  accept 
could  be  effected."  He  recommended  that  we  should 
give  the  British  notice  of  our  intention  to  terminate 
the  period  of  joint  occupancy,  as  the  treaty  of  1818 
allowed  either  party  to  do.  Mr.  Polk,  on  other  occa 
sions,  showed  himself  rather  raw  in  diplomatic  affairs ; 
it  would  seem  that  he  knew  little  of  the  matter  in  hand 
when  he  wrote  the  sentences  above.  They  show  him  as 
a  mere  servant  of  his  party,  not  as  a  great  statesman, 
able  to  mediate  between  two  mighty  nations,  and  dis 
tribute  justice  with  an  even  hand. 

A  great  deal  of  discussion  took  place.  The  Union 
—  the  organ  of  the  government  at  Washington  - 
contended  for  "  the  whole  of  Oregon  or  none."  But 
the  Charleston  Mercury  was  all  at  once  afflicted  with 
a  conscience,  and  could  distinguish  between  "  claims  " 
and  "  rights."  We  shall  presently  see  the  reason  of 
the  difference.  In  the  Senate,  Mr.  Sevier,  of  Arkan 
sas,  said  that  "  war  will  come ;  "  Mr.  Breese,  of  Illi 
nois,  would  not  have  the  government  "  grant  any  po 
sition  to  Great  Britain  upon  any  spot  whatever  of 


74  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

Oregon."  Mr.  Allen,  of  Ohio,  said  the  "  American 
Government  could  not  recede  short  of  54>,  40."  Mr. 
Hannegan,  of  Indiana,  thought  that  "  the  abandon 
ment  or  surrender  of  any  portion  of  ...  Oregon 
would  be  an  abandonment  of  the  power,  character,  and 
best  interests  of  the  American  people."  Mr.  Cass 
thought  war,  "  an  old-fashioned  war,"  was  "  almost 
inevitable ;  "  Great  Britain  "  might  be  willing  to  sub 
mit  the  question  to  arbitration,  but  the  crowned  heads 
whom  she  would  propose  as  arbitrators  would  not  be 
impartial,  for  they  would  cherish  anti-republican  feel 
ings."  He  would  negotiate,  as  Mr.  Webster  very 
justly  said,  with  the  avowed  predetermination  to  take 
nothing  less  than  the  whole  of  the  territory  in  dispute. 
In  the  House  of  Representatives,  John  Quincy  Adams 
went  in  for  the  territory  on  religious  grounds,  and 
claimed  the  whole  of  Oregon  on  the  strength  of  the 
first  chapter  of  Genesis.  His  conduct  and  his  coun 
sels  on  this  occasion  can  hardly  be  called  less  than 
rash. 

The  South  was  not  anxious  to  obtain  the  whole  of 
Oregon.  Mr.  Calhoun  was  singularly  moderate  in  his 
desire  for  re-occupation ;  nice  about  questions  of  title 
and  boundary,  and  desirous  of  keeping  the  peace.  The 
reason  is  obvious.  Mr.  Hannegan  said  well,  "  If  it 
[Oregon]  was  good  for  the  production  of  sugar  and 
cotton,  it  would  not  have  encountered  the  objection 
it  has  done."  "  I  dreaded,  on  the  part  of  those  who 
were  so  strenuously  in  favor  of  the  annexation  of 
Texas  at  the  Baltimore  Convention, —  I  dreaded,  on 
their  part,  Punic  faith."  Poor,  deluded  Mr.  Hanne 
gan  !  he  found  it.  After  Texas  was  secured,  they  who 
hunted  after  Oregon  were  left  to  beat  the  bush  alone ; 
nay,  were  hindered. 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  POLK  75 

"Here,"  says  he,  "we  are  told  that  we  must  be  careful  and 
not  come  in  collision  with  Great  Britain  about  a  disputed 
boundary!  But  if  it  were  with  feeble  Mexico  that  we  were 
about  to  come  into  collision,  we  would  then  hear  no  such  cau 
tions.  There  was  a  question  of  disputed  boundary  between  this 
country  and  Mexico,  and  those  who  have  a  right  to  know  some 
thing  of  the  history  of  that  boundary  told  us  that  our  rights 
extended  only  to  the  Nueces.  How  did  we  find  the  friends  of 
Texas  moving  on  that  occasion?  Did  they  halt  for  a  moment 
at  the  Nueces?  No,  sir;  at  a  single  bound  they  cross  the 
Nueces,  and  their  war-horses  prance  upon  the  banks  of  the 
Rio  del  Norte.  There  was  no  negotiation  then  —  we  took  the 
whole;  but  when  Oregon  is  concerned,  it  is  all  right  and  proper 
to  give  away  an  empire,  if  England  wills  it." 

In  the  House,  Mr.  Winthrop  suggested  that,  "  in 
arbitration,  reference  was  not  necessarily  to  crowned 
heads,"  but  the  matter  might  be  left  to  "  a  commission 
of  able  and  dispassionate  citizens,  either  from  the  two 
countries  ...  or  the  world  at  large."  Mr.  Ben- 
ton  was  moderate" and  wise;  his  speeches  on  the  Oregon 
question  did  much  to  calm  the  public  mind  and  pre 
pare  for  a  peaceful  settlement  of  the  difficulty.  The 
conduct  of  Mr.  Webster  was  worthy  of  the  great  man 
who  had  negotiated  the  treaty  of  Washington.  He 
said  in  the  beginning,  "  Let  our  arguments  be  fair ;  let 
us  settle  the  question  reasonably." 

Congress  resolved  to  terminate  the  joint  occupancy. 
The  British  Government  was  willing  to  settle  the  busi 
ness  by  arbitration  or  direct  negotiation.  America 
prefers  the  latter.  Britain  sends  over  her  proposition 
to  settle  on  the  49th  degree  as  a  general  basis.  Mr. 
Polk  referred  the  whole  matter  to  the  Senate,  and 
asked  their  advice.  He  had  not  changed  his  opinion. 
If  the  Senate  did  not  take  the  responsibility  and  ad 
vise  him  to  accept  the  British  proposal,  he  should  feel 
it  his  duty  to  reject  the  offer.  Thus  the  responsibility 
was  thrown  upon  the  Senate.  The  proposal  was  ac- 


76  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

cepted,  a  treaty  was  speedily  made,  and  the  only  remain 
ing  cause  of  contention  with  England  put  to  rest  for 
ever.  The  conduct  of  Mr.  Polk,  in  making  such  pre 
tensions,  and  holding  out  such  boasts,  on  such  a  sub 
ject,  was  not  merely  rash,  weak,  and  foolish;  it  was 
far  worse  than  that.  But  for  the  unexpected  pru 
dence  of  a  few  men  in  the  Senate,  and  the  aversion  of 
the  South  to  acquire  free  territory,  he  would  have  lit 
the  flames  of  war  anew,  and  done  a  harm  to  mankind 
which  no  services  he  could  render  would  ever  atone 
for. 

On  the  4th  of  July,  1845,  Texas  accepted  the  con 
tract  of  annexation,  and  on  the  22nd  of  December, 
two  hundred  and  twenty-five  years  after  the  landing 
of  the  Pilgrims  on  Plymouth  Rock,  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States  passed  upon  the  matter  finally,  and  the 
work  was  done.  However,  previous  to  this  event,  Mr. 
Polk  had  proposed  to  renew  our  diplomatic  relations 
with  Mexico,  which  had  been  broken  off.  Mexico  con 
sented  to  receive  "  a  commissioner  .  .  .  with  full 
powers  to  settle  the  present  dispute."  America  sent 
Mr.  Slidell  as  a  permanent  minister  plenipotentiary. 
He  was  refused  pro  causa.  The  instructions  given  to 
Mr.  Slidell  have  not,  we  think,  been  officially  published, 
though  they  were  requested  by  the  House.  However, 
a  document  purporting  to  contain  those  instructions 
was  published  unofficially.  From  that  it  appears  that 
he  was  instructed  to  purchase  New  Mexico  and  Cali 
fornia  ;  he  was  allowed  to  offer  $25,000,000  and  the 
American  claims  on  Mexico,  amounting,  by  his  esti 
mate,  to  $8,187,684.  Thus  the  whole  territory  of 
New  Mexico  and  California  was  thought  to  be  worth 
$33,187,684. 

Soon  after  the  accession  of  Mr.  Polk  to  office,  Gen- 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  POLK  77 

eral  Taylor  was  ordered  to  Texas  with  an  army.  On 
the  15th  of  June,  he  was  advised  by  the  Secretary  of 
War,  Mr.  Marcy :  "  The  point  of  your  ultimate  des 
tination  is  the  western  portion  of  Texas,  where  you 
will  select  and  occupy,  on  or  near  the  Rio  Grande  del 
Norte,  such  a  site  as  ...  will  be  best  adapted  to 
repel  invasion.  You  will  limit  yourself  to  the  defense 
of  the  territory,  unless  Mexico  shall  declare  war 
against  the  United  States."  General  Taylor  took  pos 
session  on  the  Nueces  at  Corpus  Christi,  "  the  most 
western  point  ever  occupied  by  Texas,"  but  nearly  two 
hundred  miles  east  of  the  Rio  Grande.  August  6th, 
Mr.  Marcy  writes :  — 

"  Orders  have  already  been  issued  to  send  ten  thousand 
muskets  and  a  thousand  rifles  into  Texas." 

August  23rd, 

"  Should  Mexico  assemble  a  large  body  of  troops  on  the  Rio 
Grande,  and  cross  it  with  a  considerable  force,  such  a  move 
ment  would  be  regarded  as  an  invasion  of  the  United  States." 

August  30th, 

"  An  attempt  to  cross,  .  .  .  with  such  a  force,  will  be 
considered  in  the  same  light.  .  .  .  Mexico  having  thus  com 
menced  hostilities,  you  may  .  .  .  cross  the  Rio  Grande,  dis 
perse  or  capture  the  forces,"  etc. 

He  was  authorized  to  draw  militia  from  five  States 
—  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  Kentucky,  and 
Tennessee.  Still  General  Taylor  remained  at  Corpus 
Christi,  not  undertaking  to  commit  an  act  of  war  by 
marching  into  the  territory  of  Mexico.  On  the  13th 
of  July,  1846,  he  was  ordered  to  advance  and  oc 
cupy  .  .  .  positions  on  or  near  the  east  bank  of 
the  Rio  Grande.  Accordingly  General  Taylor 
marches  from  the  Nueces  to  the  Rio  Grande,  finding  no 


78  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

Texans  or  Americans  on  his  way  —  only  "  small  armed 
parties  of  Mexicans,"  who  appeared  "  desirous  to  avoid 
us."  He  takes  his  position  on  the  left  bank  of  the 
Rio  Grande,  and  plants  his  guns  —  four  eighteen- 
pounders  —  so  as  to  "  bear  directly  upon  the  public 
square  of  Matamoras,  and  within  good  range  for  de 
molishing  the  town."  Behold  General  Taylor  nearly 
two  hundred  miles  within  the  territory  of  Mexico,  by 
the  command  of  Mr.  Polk  —  in  a  district,  to  use  the 
words  of  Mr.  Trist  in  his  letter  to  Mr.  Buchanan, 
which  "  just  as  certainly  constituted  a  part  of  Tamaul- 
ipas,  and  not  of  Texas,  .  .  .  as  it  is  certain  that 
the  counties  of  Acomac  and  Northampton  do  now 
constitute  a  part  of  the  State  of  Virginia  and  not  of 
Maryland."  An  interview  took  place  between  the 
American  general,  Worth,  and  General  Vega  on  the 
part  of  Mexico.  General  Vega  remarked  that  "  we  " 
felt  indignant  at  seeing  the  American  flag  placed  on 
the  Rio  Grande,  in  a  portion  of  the  Mexican  territory. 
General  Worth  replied,  "  that  was  a  matter  of  taste ; 
notwithstanding  there  it  would  remain."  On  the  12th 
of  April,  the  Mexican  general,  Ampudia,  very  justly 
said,  "  Your  government  .  .  .  has  not  only  in 
sulted,  but  exasperated  the  Mexican  nation,  bearing 
its  conquering  banner  to  the  left  bank  of  the  Rio 
Grande  del  Norte." 

It  was  plain  that  America  had  committed  an  act  of 
war;  still  the  Mexicans  did  not  commence  hostilities. 
On  the  12th  of  April,  Ampudia  summoned  the  Ameri 
can  general  to  "  withdraw  within  twenty-four  hours ;  " 
he  answered  the  same  day  that  he  "  should  not  retro 
grade."  On  the  17th  he  blockaded  the  mouth  of  the 
Rio  Grande,  thus  cutting  off  supplies  from  Matamoras, 
and  wrote  home  that  "  it  will  at  any  rate  compel  the 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  POLK  79 

Mexicans  either  to  withdraw  their  army  from  Mata- 
moras,  where  it  cannot  be  subsisted,  or  to  assume  the 
offensive  on  this  side  of  the  river."  Still  there  was 
no  fighting.  But  on  the  23rd  of  April,  General  Tay 
lor  thus  writes : 

"  With  a  view  to  check  the  depredations  of  small  parties  of 
Mexicans  on  this  side  of  the  river,  Lieutenants  Dobbins,  3rd 
infantry,  and  Porter,  4th  infantry,  were  authorized  by  me,  a 
few  days  since,  to  scour  the  country  for  some  miles,  with  a 
select  party  of  men,  and  capture  or  destroy  any  such  parties 
that  they  might  meet.  It  appears  that  they  separated,  and  that 
Lieutenant  Porter,  at  the  head  of  his  own  detachment,  surprised 
a  Mexican  camp,  drove  away  the  men,  and  took  possession  of 
their  horses.  Soon  afterwards  there  fell  a  heavy  rain,  and,  at 
a  moment  when  the  party  seem  to  have  been  quite  unprepared 
for  an  attack,  they  were  fired  upon  from  the  thicket.  In  at 
tempting  to  return  it,  the  muskets  missed  fire,  and  the  party 
dispersed  in  the  thicket." 

It  is  plain  that  America  not  only  committed  the  first 
act  of  war,  by  invading  the  territory  of  Mexico,  but 
actually  first  commenced  hostilities.  It  is  true  the 
president  of  Mexico,  on  the  18th  of  April,  had  said: 
"  From  this  day  begins  our  defensive  war,  and  every 
part  of  our  territory  attacked  or  invaded  shall  be  de 
fended."  On  the  24th  he  issued  his  proclamation  de 
claring  that  "  hostilities  have  been  commenced  by  the 
United  States,  in  making  new  conquests  upon  our  ter 
ritories  within  the  boundaries  of  Tamaulipas  and  New 
Leon.  I  have  not  the  right  to  declare  war."  The 
same  day  General  Arista  informed  General  Taylor  that 
he  considered  hostilities  commenced,  and  should  prose 
cute  them.  It  was  on  that  very  day  that  the  two  par 
ties  "  became  engaged." 

General  Taylor's  letters  reached  Washington  on 
Saturday,  May  9th ;  on  Monday,  Mr.  Polk  sent  a  mes 
sage  to  Congress  and  declared  that  — 


80  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

"  War  exists,  and  notwithstanding  all  our  efforts  to  avoid  it, 
exists  by  the  act  of  Mexico;"  "the  Mexican  government  have 
at  last  invaded  our  territory,  and  shed  the  blood  of  our  fellow- 
citizens  on  our  own  soil ; "  "  we  have  been  exerting  our  best 
efforts  to  propitiate  her  good  will;"  "we  have  tried  every  effort 
at  reconciliation."  "  The  cup  of  forbearance  had  been  ex 
hausted  even  before  the  recent  information  from  the  frontier  of 
the  Del  Xorte.  But  now  Mexico  has  passed  the  boundary  of 
the  United  States,  has  invaded  our  territory,  and  shed  American 
blood  upon  the  American  soil." 

Documents  accompanied  the  message.  Mr.  Win- 
tlirop  proposed  they  should  be  read.  No.  In  a  very 
short  time  a  bill  passed  the  House  placing  the  army 
and  navy  at  the  President's  disposal,  authorizing  him 
to  raise  50,000  volunteers,  and  putting  in  his  hands 
$10,000,000,  for  the  purpose  of  enabling  him  to 
"  prosecute  said  war  to  a  speedy  and  successful  ter 
mination."  In  the  Senate,  the  same  bill  passed  the 
next  day.  The  preamble  was  in  these  memorable 
words :  "  Whereas,  by  the  act  of  the  Republic  of 
Mexico,  war  exists  between  that  government  and  the 
United  States."  In  the  House,  fourteen  voted  against 
the  bill,  and  two  in  the  Senate.*  Six  of  the  sixteen 
were  from  Massachusetts,  two  were  from  other  parts 
of  New  England,  and  five  from  Ohio,  one  of  her 
daughter  States. 

The  history  of  the  war  is  well  known.  It  was  con 
ducted  with  great  vigor;  on  the  whole,  with  great  mil 
itary  skill,  and  with  as  much  humanity  as  could  be 
expected.  War  at  best  is  prolonged  cruelty.  Still  we 

*  Here  are  the  names.  In  the  Senate, —  Thomas  Clayton,  Dela 
ware;  John  Davis,  Massachusetts.  In  the  House, —  John  Quincy 
Adams,  George  Ashmun,  Joseph  Orinnell,  Charles  Hudson, 
Daniel  P.  King,  of  Massachusetts;  Henry  P.  Cranston,  Rhode 
Island;  Luther  Severance,  Maine;  Erastus  D.  Culver,  New  York; 
John  Strahan,  Pennsylvania;  Columbus  Delano,  Joseph  M.  Root, 
Daniel  R.  Tilden,  Joseph  Vance,  Joshua  R.  Oiddings,  Ohio. 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  POLK  81 

have  read  of  no  war  conducted  with  less  inhumanity 
than  this.  Some  acts  of  wantonness  were  certainly 
committed.  The  capture  of  Tabasco  is  an  example. 
The  conduct  of  the  volunteers  was  often  base  and  re 
volting.  General  Taylor  was  furnished  with  a  procla 
mation,  to  distribute  in  Mexico,  designed  to  foment 
discord,  to  promote  hostility  between  the  rich  and  poor. 
Their  leaders  were  called  "  tyrants,"  and  "  their  real 
purpose "  was  "  to  proclaim  and  establish  a  mon 
archy."  Colonel  Stevenson  was  told  to  make  the  peo 
ple  "  feel  that  we  come  as  deliverers ;  their  rights  of 
person,  property,  and  religion  must  be  respected  and 
sustained."  General  Kearney  proclaimed:  "  It  is  the 
wish  and  intention  of  the  United  States  to  provide  for 
New  Mexico  a  free  government, —  similar  to  those  in 
the  United  States."  "  We  shall  want  from  you,"  says 
General  Taylor's  proclamation,  "  nothing  but  food  for 
our  army,  and  for  this  you  shall  always  be  paid  in 
cash  the  full  value."  But  on  the  9th  of  July,  General 
Taylor  was  told  in  a  confidential  letter :  — 

"You  will  also  readily  comprehend  that  in  a  country  so 
divided  into  races,  classes,  and  parties,  as  Mexico  is,  and  with 
so  many  local  divisions  among  departments,  and  personal  di 
visions  among  individuals,  there  must  be  great  room  for  operating 
on  the  minds  and  feelings  of  large  portions  of  the  inhabitants, 
and  inducing  them  to  wish  success  to  an  invasion  which  has 
no  desire  to  injure  their  country;  and  which,  in  overthrowing 
their  oppressors,  may  benefit  themselves.  Between  the  Spaniards, 
who  monopolize  the  wealth  and  power  of  the  country,  and 
the  mixed  Indian  race,  who  bear  its  burdens,  there  must  be 
jealousy  and  animosity.  The  same  feelings  must  exist  between 
the  lower  and  higher  orders  of  the  clergy;  the  latter  of  whom 
have  the  dignities  and  the  revenues  while  the  former  have  pov 
erty  and  labor.  ...  In  all  this  field  of  division  — in  all 
these  elements  of  social,  political,  personal,  and  local  discord 
—  there  must  be  openings  to  reach  the  interests,  passions,  or 
principles  of  some  of  the  parties,  and  thereby  to  conciliate 
XIII— 6 


82  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

their  good  will,  and  make  them  co-operate  with  us  in  bringing 
about  an  honorable  and  speedy  peace. 

*'  Availing  yourself  of  divisions  which  you  may  find  existing 
among  the  Mexican  people  —  to  which  allusion  has  been  made 
—  it  will  be  your  policy  to  encourage  the  separate  departments 
or  States,  and  especially  those  which  you  may  invade  and  oc 
cupy,  to  declare  their  independence  of  the  central  government 
of  Mexico,  and  either  to  become  our  allies,  or  to  assume,  as  it 
is  understood  Yucatan  has  done,  a  neutral  attitude  in  the  exist 
ing  war  between  the  United  States  and  Mexico." 

The  war  once  begun,  it  was  to  be  prosecuted  to  a 
"  successful  termination ;  "  that  is,  to  the  dismember 
ment  of  Mexico.  Captain  Sloat  lands  at  Monterey, 
on  the  Pacific  coast  of  Mexico,  on  the  7th  of  July, 
1846,  issues  his  proclamation,  and  declares  that, 
"  hencef orward  California  will  be  a  portion  of  the 
United  States,  .  .  .  and  the  same  protection  will 
be  extended  as  to  the  other  States  of  the  Union." 
Commodore  Stockton  sets  up  his  "  Ebenezer  "  at  Ciu- 
dad  de  los  Angeles  on  the  17th  of  August,  1846,  and 
says,  "  I,  Robert  F.  Stockton,  ...  do  hereby 
make  known  to  all  men,  ...  do  now  declare  Up 
per  and  Lower  California  to  be  a  territory  of  the 
United  States,  under  the  name  of  the  territory  of 
California."  Here  is  annexation  without  the  least  de 
lay  ;  swift  enough  to  satify  even  South  Carolina. 

One  pleasant  thing  we  find  in  looking  through  the 
disagreeable  and  often  hypocritical  documents  con 
nected  with  the  Mexican  War,  the  instructions  sent  by 
Secretary  Bancroft  to  Commodore  Conner,  July  llth, 
1845:- 

"This  is,  perhaps,  the  largest  fleet  that  ever  sailed  under  the 
American  flag;  and  while  it  is  sufficient,  in  case  of  war,  to  win 
glory  for  yourself,  your  associates,  and  the  country,  you  will 
win  still  higher  glory  if,  by  the  judicious  management  of  your 
force,  you  contribute  to  the  continuance  of  peace." 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  POLK  83 

In  his  second  annual  message,  Dec.  8th,  1846,  Mr. 
Polk  said,  "  The  war  has  not  been  waged  with  a  view 
to  conquest;  but  having  been  commenced  by  Mexico 
it  has  been  carried  into  the  enemy's  country,  and  will 
be  vigorously  prosecuted  there,  with  a  view  to  obtain 
an  honorable  peace,  and  thereby  secure  an  ample  in 
demnity  for  the  expenses  of  the  war."  But  in  the 
message  of  Dec.  7th,  1847,  he  says :  "  As  Mexico  re 
fuses  all  indemnity,  we  should  adopt  measures  to  in 
demnify  ourselves,  by  appropriating  permanently  a 
portion  of  her  territory."  "  New  Mexico  and  Cali 
fornia  were  taken  possession  of  by  our  forces ;  I  am 
satisfied  that  they  should  never  be  surrendered  to 
Mexico."  Some  one  said  to  General  Pillow,  "  I 
thought  the  object  of  your  movement  in  this  war  was 
a  treaty  of  peace."  "  True,"  (replied  General  Pil 
low)  "  that  is  the  object  of  the  war;  but  the  object  of 
this  campaign  was  to  capture  the  capital,  and  then 
make  peace ;  "  again,  "  this  army  has  not  come  to  con 
quer  a  peace;  it  has  come  to  conquer  the  country ; 
we  will  make  them  dine  and  sup  on  the  horrors  of  war." 
The  statements  of  Mr.  Polk  require  no  comment.  We 
do  not  wish  to  apply  to  them  the  only  word  in  the 
English  tongue  which  describes  them.  The  Presi 
dent  made  the  war,  and  Mr.  Nicholas  P.  Trist,  a  sec 
retary  in  the  Department  of  State,  made  the  peace. 
As  the  war  was  begun  by  Mr.  Polk  without  legal  au 
thority,  so  the  treaty  was  made  without  legal  author 
ity.  The  Senate  confirmed  it. 

One  or  two  things  in  the  correspondence  of  Mr. 
Trist  are  too  remarkable  to  pass  by.  June  2nd,  1847, 
he  writes  to  Secretary  Buchanan,  speaking  of  a  cer 
tain  boundary: 


84  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

**  It  includes  a  vast  and  rich  country,  with  many  inhabitants. 
It  is  too  much  to  take.  The  population  is  mostly  as  dark  as 
our  mulattoes,  and  nominally  free,  and  would  be  actually  so 
under  our  government.  The  North  would  oppose  taking  it  lest 
slavery  should  be  established  there;  and  the  South  lest  its 
colored  population  should  be  received  as  citizens,  and  protect 
their  runaway  slaves." 

Again  September  4 : 

"  Among  the  points  which  came  under  discussion  was  the 
exclusion  of  slavery  from  all  territory  which  should  pass  from 
Mexico.  I  was  told  that  if  it  were  proposed  to  the  people  of 
the  United  States  to  part  with  a  portion  of  their  territory,  in 
order  that  the  Inquisition  should  be  therein  established,  the 
proposal  could  not  excite  stronger  feelings  of  abhorrence  than 
those  awakened  in  Mexico  by  the  prospect  of  the  introduction 
of  slavery  in  any  territory  parted  with  by  her.  Our  conversa 
tion  on  this  topic  was  perfectly  frank,  and  no  less  friendly; 
and  the  more  effective  upon  their  minds,  inasmuch  as  I  was 
enabled  to  say  with  perfect  security,  that  although  their  im 
pressions  respecting  the  practical  fact  of  slavery,  as  it  existed 
in  the  United  States,  were,  I  had  no  doubt,  entirely  erroneous; 
yet  there  was  probably  no  difference  between  my  individual 
views  and  sentiments  on  slavery,  considered  in  itself,  and  those 
which  they  entertained.  I  concluded  by  assuring  them  that 
the  bare  mention  of  the  subject  in  any  treaty  to  which  the 
United  States  were  a  party,  was  an  absolute  impossibility; 
that  no  President  of  the  United  States  would  dare  to  present 
any  such  treaty  to  the  Senate;  and  that  if  it  were  in  their 
power  to  offer  me  the  whole  territory  described  in  our  project, 
increased  tenfold  in  value,  and,  in  addition  to  that,  covered 
a  foot  thick  all  over  with  pure  gold,  upon  the  single  condi 
tion  that  slavery  should  be  excluded  therefrom,  I  could  not 
entertain  the  offer  for  a  moment,  nor  think  even  of  com 
municating  it  to  Washington." 

America  had  Mexico  entirely  at  her  mercy,  and 
wanted  "  indemnity  for  the  past,  and  security  for  the 
future,"  -  indemnity  for  the  cost  of  the  war.  She 
took  California  and  New  Mexico.  The  portion  of 
the  territory  west  of  the  Rio  Grande,  according  to 
Mr.  Walker's  statement,  amounts  to  526,078  square 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  POLK  85 

miles,  or  336,689,920  acres;  (Texas,  within  its  "as 
sumed  limits,"  contains  325,529  square  miles,  or  208,- 
332,800  acres.)  For  this  the  United  States  were  to 
pay  Mexico  $15,000,000,  and  abandon  all  the  cele 
brated  claims  which  Mr.  Slidell  estimated  at  $8,187,- 
684,  paying  to  our  citizens,  however,  not  more  than 
$3,250,000.  Taking  the  smallest  sum  — the  United 
States  pays  Mexico  for  the  territory  $18,250,000, 
and  throws  in  the  cost  of  the  war.  Certainly,  we  must 
be  in  great  want  of  land  to  refuse  to  pay  more  than 
our  "claims"  and  $25,000,000,  and  then  actually 
pay  the  claims  and  $15,000,000,  flinging  in  all  the 
cost  of  the  war,  and  the  loss  of  life. 

If  England  had  one  of  her  victims  as  completely 
at  her  feet  as  Mexico  lay  helpless  at  ours,  she  would 
have  demanded  all  the  public  property  of  Mexico,  a 
complete  "  indemnity  for  the  cost  of  the  war,"  and 
a  commercial  treaty  highly  disadvantageous  to  Mex 
ico,  and  highly  profitable  to  England.  Why  was  Mr. 
Polk  so  moderate?  Had  the  administration  become 
moral,  and  though  careless  of  the  natural  justice  of 
the  war,  careful  about  justice  in  the  settlement?  No, — • 
there  were  a  few  men  in  the  land  hostile  to  the  war; 
some  because  it  was  war,  some  because  it  was  a  wicked 
war.  These  men,  few  in  number,  obscure  in  position, 
often  hated,  and  sometimes  persecuted,  reproached 
by  the  President  as  affording  "  aid  and  comfort  to 
the  enemy,"  being  on  the  side  of  the  Eternal  Justice, 
had  it  on  their  side.  The  moral  portion  of  both 
political  parties  —  likewise  a  small  portion,  and  an 
obscure,  not  numbering  a  single  eminent  name  —  op 
posed  the  war,  and  the  government  trembled.  The 
pretensions  of  the  South,  her  arrogance,  her  cun 
ning,  awakened  at  last  the  tardy  North.  Men  began 


86  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

to  talk  of  the  Wilmot  Proviso ;  of  restricting  slavery. 
True,  some  men  fired  by  the  instinct  for  office  cried 
"  Be  still,"  and  others  fired  with  the  instinct  for  gold, 
repeated  the  cry.  Those  who  had  the  instinct  for  jus 
tice  would  not  be  still;  no,  nor  will  not;  never.  The 
slaveholders  themselves  began  to  tremble  —  and  hence 
the  easy  conditions  on  which  Mexico  was  let  off. 

The  whole  direct  cost  of  the  war  is  a  tax  of  $10 
on  each  person  in  the  United  States,  bond  or  free,  old 
or  newly  born,  rich  or  poor;  like  all  other  taxes,  it 
is  ultimately  to  be  paid  by  the  labor  of  the  country, 
by  the  men  who  work  with  their  hands,  chiefly  by  poor 
men.  The  twenty-million-headed  nation,  blindly  led 
by  guides  not  blind,  little  thought  of  this  when  they 
shouted  at  each  famous  victory,  and  denounced  hum 
ble  men  who  both  considered  the  natural  justice  of 
the  war,  and  counted  its  cost. 

Mr.  Polk  found  the  nation  with  a  debt  of  $17,- 
075,445 ;  he  left  it  with  a  debt  of  $64,938,401.  That 
was  the  debt  on  the  4th  of  March,  1849. 

Mr.  Polk  refused  his  signature  to  three  bills  passed 
by  Congress ;  one  making  "  appropriations  for  the 
improvement  of  certain  harbors  and  rivers,"  one  for 
the  ascertainment  and  satisfaction  of  "  claims  of 
American  citizens "  on  France  before  the  31st  of 
July,  1801,  a  third  "  for  continuing  certain  works- 
in  the  territory  of  Wisconsin,  and  for  other  purposes." 
It  is  a  little  remarkable  to  find  a  man  who  commenced 
war  upon  Mexico  by  invading  her  territory,  seized 
with  such  scruples  about  violating  the  Constitution 
while  paying  an  honest  debt.  The  Constitution  which 
can  b€  violated  to  promote  slavery,  can  easily  afford 
an  excuse  for  the  neglect  of  justice. 

Mr.  Polk  has  gone  to  the  Judge  of  all  men,  who  is 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  POLK  87 

also  their  Father.  The  hurrah  of  the  multitude  and 
the  applause  of  an  irresponsible  party  are  of  no  more 
value  than  the  water  which  a  Methodist  minister 
sprinkled  on  the  head  of  the  dying  man.  His  wealth 
became  nothing;  his  power  and  his  fame  went  back 
to  those  that  gave;  at  the  grave's  mouth  his  friends 
(and  he  had  friends)  forsook  him;  and  the  monarch 
of  the  nation,  the  master  of  negro  slaves,  the  author 
of  a  war,  was  alone  with  his  God.  Not  a  slave  in  the 
whole  wide  world  would  have  taken  his  place.  But 
God  sees  not  as  man.  Here  let  us  leave  him,  not  with 
out  pity  for  his  earthly  history  —  not  without  love 
for  a  brother  man  whose  weakness,  not  his  wicked 
ness,  wrought  for  our  nation  such  shame  and  woe. 
He  proved  by  experiment  that  his  was  "  a  nomination 
not  fit  to  be  made ; "  not  fit  to  be  confirmed  after  the 
convention  had  made  it;  he  demonstrated  by  experi 
ment  the  folly  of  putting  a  little  man  into  a  great 
man's  place;  the  folly  of  taking  the  mere  creature 
of  a  party  to-  be  the  President  of  a  nation.  It  was 
not  the  first  time  this  had  been  done,  nor  the  last. 

Yet  such  is  the  structure  of  government  and  society 
in  America,  such  the  character  of  the  people,  so  young, 
so  free,  so-  fresh,  and  strong  —  that  not  even  such  an 
administration  as  Mr.  Polk's  can  permanently  impede 
the  nation's  march.  Cattle  and  corn  were  never  more 
abundant.  Foreigners  came  here  in  great  numbers, 
220,483  in  the  year  1848.  Our  total  increase  must 
have  been  considerably  more  than  half  a  million  a 
year.  Not  long  ago  men  sneered  at  America  —  a 
republic  could  not  hold  its  own,  or  only  with  men  like 
Washington  at  its  head.  But  in  1848,  when  the  na 
tions  of  Europe  were  convulsed  with  revolutions,  whose 
immediate  failure  is  now  the  joy  of  the  enemies  of  man- 


88  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

kind,  west  of  the  ocean  not  less  than  east  thereof  — 
America  stood  firm,  though  her  nominal  guide  was  only 
James  K.  Polk.  Ours  is  the  most  complicated  gov 
ernment  in  the  world,  but  it  resembles  the  complica 
tion  of  the  human  body,  not  that  of  a  fancy  watch. 
Our  increase  in  wealth  was  greater  far  than  our  pro 
portionate  growth  of  numbers.  When  trade  is  free, 
and  labor  free,  and  institutions  free  for  all  men,  there 
is  no  danger  that  men  will  multiply  faster  than  bread  to 
fill  their  mouths.  This  is  God's  world  and  not  the 
devil's. 

We  are  a  new  people  in  a  new  world;  flexible  still, 
and  ready  to  take  the  impress  of  a  great  idea.  Shame 
on  us  that  we  choose  such  leaders ;  men  with  no  noble 
gifts  of  leadership,  no  lofty  ideas,  no  humane  aims; 
men  that  defile  the  continent  with  brother's  blood  most 
wickedly  poured  out !  The  President  of  the  Democrats 
showed  himself  the  ally  of  the  autocrats  of  the  East. 

The  good  things  of  Mr.  Polk's  administration  we 
have  spoken  of  and  duly  honored ;  the  abomination 
thereof  —  whence  came  that?  From  the  same  source 
out  of  which  so  much  evil  has  already  come :  from 
slavery.  A  nation,  like  a  man,  is  amenable  to  the  law 
of"  God ;  suffers  for  its  sin,  and  must  suffer  till  it  ends 
the-  sin.  In  the  North,  national  unity  of  action  is 
preserved  with  little  sacrifice  of  individual  variety  of 
action;  the  union  of  the  people  and  the  freedom  of 
the  person  are  carefully  kept  secure.  Hence  each 
man  has  as  much  freedom  as  he  can  have  in  the  pres 
ent  state  of  physical,  moral,  and  social  science.  But 
in  the  South  it  is  not  so ;  there,  in  a  population  of 
7,334,431  persons,  there  are  2,486,326  slaves;  so  if 
the  average  amount  of  freedom  in  the  North  be  rep 
resented  by  one,  in  the  South  it  will  be  but  about  two- 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  POLK  89 

thirds ;  it  is  doubtful  that  the  inhabitants  of  any  part 
of  Europe,  except  Russia  and  Turkey,  have  less. 
Think  you,  O  reader,  while  we  thus  trample  on  the 
rights  of  millions  of  men,  we  shall  not  suffer  for  the 
crime  ?  No  !  God  forbid  that  we  should  not  suffer ! 

There  are  two  things  the  nation  has  to  fear  —  two 
modes  of  irresponsible  power.  One  is  the  power  of 
party;  one  the  power  of  gold.  Mr.  Polk  was  the 
creature  of  a  party;  his  ideas  were  party  ideas,  his 
measures  party  measures,  his  acts  party  acts,  himself 
a  party  man.  A  party  can  make  a  President,  as  a 
heathen  his  idol,  out  of  anything;  no  material  is  too 
vulgar;  but  a  party  cannot  make  a  great  man  out 
of  all  the  little  ones  which  can  be  scented  out  by  the 
keenest  convention  which  ever  met.  The  Democratic 
party  made  Mr.  Polk;  sustained  him;  but  no  huzzas 
could  make  him  a  great  man,  a  just  man,  or  a  fair 
man.  No  king  is  more  tyrannical  than  a  party  when 
it  has  the  power;  no  despot  more  irresponsible.  The 
Democrats  and  Whigs  are  proof  of  this.  One  has 
noble  instincts  and  some  noble  ideas  —  so  had  the 
other  once;  but  consider  the  conduct  of  the  Baltimore 
Convention  in  1844 ;  their  conduct  for  five  years  after. 
Consider  the  convention  of  Philadelphia  in  1848,  and 
the  subsequent  conduct  of  the  Whigs!  This  irre 
sponsible  power  of  party  has  long  been  controlled  by 
the  South. 

The  irresponsible  power  of  gold  appears  in  two 
forms,  as  it  is  held  by  individuals  or  corporations.  The 
power  of  gold,  when  vast  sums  are  amassed  by  a 
single  individual  who  owns  more  property  than  five 
counties  of  Massachusetts,  is  certainly  dangerous,  and 
of  an  evil  tendency.  But  yet  as  the  individual  is 
transient,  it  is  not  presently  alarming;  a  wise  law, 


90  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

unwelcome  often  to  the  rich  man,  limits  his  control 
to  a  few  years.  His  children  may  be  fathers  of  poor 
men.  But  when  vast  sums  are  held  by  a  corporation, 
permanent  in  itself,  though  composed  of  fleeting  ele 
ments,  this  power,  which  no  statute  of  mortmain  here 
holds  in  check,  becomes  alarming  as  well  as  danger 
ous.  This  power  of  gold  belongs  to  the  North,  and 
is  likewise  irresponsible.  Sometimes  the  two  help  bal 
ance,  and  counteract  one  another.  It  was  so  in  the 
administration  of  Jackson  and  Van  Buren.  Jackson 
set  the  power  of  party  to  smite  the  power  of  gold. 
Even  Mr.  Polk  did  so  in  two  remarkable  instances. 
But  this  is  not  always  to  be  expected ;  the  two  are 
natural  allies.  The  feudalism  of  birth,  depending 
on  a  Caucasian  descent,  and  the  feudalism  of  gold, 
depending  on  its  dollars,  are  of  the  same  family,  only 
settled  in  different  parts  of  the  land;  they  are  true 
yoke-fellows.  The  slaveocracy  of  the  South,  and  the 
plutocracy  of  the  North,  are  born  of  the  same  mother. 
Now,  for  the  first  time  for  many  years,  they  have 
stricken  hands ;  but  the  Northern  power  of  gold  at  the 
Philadelphia  convention  was  subjugated  by  the  South 
ern  power  of  party,  and  lent  itself  a  willing 
tool.  Together  they  have  selected  the  man  of  their 
choice,  confessedly  ignorant  of  politics,  of  small  abil 
ity,  and  red  with  war;  placed  him  on  the  throne  of 
the  nation.  The  slaveocracy  and  the  plutocracy  each 
gave  him  its  counsel.  By  his  experiment  he  is  to 
demonstrate  his  fitness,  his  impotence,  or  his  crime. 
He  is  on  trial  before  the  nation.  It  is  not  ours  to 
judge,  still  less  to  prejudge  him.  Let  General  Tay 
lor  be  weighed  in  an  even  balance.  We  wish  there 
might  be  a  more  honorable  tale  to  tell  of  the  first  mere 
military  chief  the  nation  ever  chose.  There  are  great 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  POLK  91 

problems  before  the  nation,  involving  the  welfare  of 
millions  of  men.  We  pause,  with  hope  and  fear,  for 
the  Whigs  to  solve  them  as  they  can  under  the  admin 
istration  of  Taylor  and  Fillmore. 


Ill 

THE  STATE  OF  THE  NATION 

1850 

Righteousness  exalteth  a  nation:  but  sin  is  a  reproach  to  any 

people.  _  Proverbs  xiv.  34. 

We  come  together  to-day,  by  the  governor's  proc 
lamation,  to  give  thanks  to  God  for  our  welfare,  not 
merely  for  our  happiness  as  individuals  or  as  families, 
but  for  our  welfare  as  a  people.  How  can  we  better 
improve  this  opportunity,  than  by  looking  a  little  into 
the  condition  of  the  people?  And  accordingly  I  in 
vite  your  attention  to  a  sermon  of  the  State  of  this 
Nation.  I  shall  try  to  speak  of  the  condition  of  the 
nation  itself,  then  of  the  causes  of  that  condition,  and, 
in  the  third  place,  of  the  dangers  that  threaten,  or  are 
alleged  to  threaten,  the  nation. 

First,  of  our  condition.  Look  about  you  in  Bos 
ton.  Here  are  a  hundred  and  forty  thousand  souls, 
living  in  peace  and  in  comparative  prosperity.  I 
think,  without  doing  injustice  to  the  other  side  of  the 
water,  there  is  no  city  in  the  Old  World,  of  this  pop 
ulation,  with  so  much  intelligence,  activity,  morality, 
order,  comfort,  and  general  welfare,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  with  so  little  of  the  opposite  of  all  these.  I 
know  the  faults  of  Boston,  and  I  would  not  disguise 
them ;  the  poverty,  unnatural  poverty,  which  shivers 
in  the  cellar;  the  unnatural  wealth  which  bloats  in  the 
parlor;  the  sin  which  is  hid  in  the  corners  of  the  jail; 
and  the  more  dangerous  sin  which  sets  up  Christian 
ity  for  a  pretense ;  the  sophistry  which  lightens  in  the 

92 


STATE  OF  THE  NATION  93 

newspapers,  and  thunders  in  the  pulpit  —  I  know  all 
these  things,  and  do  not  pretend  to  disguise  them ;  and 
still  I  think  no  city  of  the  Old  World,  of  the  same 
population,  has  so  much  which  good  men  prize,  and 
so  little  which  good  men  deplore. 

See  the  increase  of  material  wealth;  the  buildings 
for  trade  and  for  homes;  the  shops  and  ships.  This 
year  Boston  will  add  to  her  possessions  some  ten  or 
twenty  millions  of  dollars,  honestly  and  earnestly  got. 
Observe  the  neatness  of  the  streets,  the  industry  of 
the  inhabitants,  their  activity  of  mind,  the  orderliness 
of  the  people,  the  signs  of  comfort.  Then  consider 
the  charities  of  Boston;  those  limited  to  our  own  bor 
der,  and  those  which  extend  further,  those  beautiful 
charities  which  encompass  the  earth  with  their  sweet 
influence.  Look  at  the  schools,  a  monument  of  which 
the  city  may  well  be  proud,  in  spite  of  their  defects. 

But  Boston,  though  we  proudly  call  it  the  Athens 
of  America,  is  not  the  pleasantest  thing  in  New  Eng 
land  to  look  at ;  it  is  the  part  of  Massachusetts  which 
I  like  the  least  to  look  at,  spite  of  its  excellence.  Look 
further,  at  the  whole  of  Massachusetts,  and  you  see  a 
fairer  spectacle.  There  is  less  wealth  at  Provincetown, 
in  proportion  to  the  numbers,  but  there  is  less  want ; 
there  is  more  comfort;  property  is  more  evenly  and 
equally  distributed  there  than  here,  and  the  welfare  of 
a  country  never  so  much  depends  upon  the  amount  of 
its  wealth,  as  on  the  mode  in  which  its  wealth  is  dis 
tributed.  In  the  State,  there  are  about  one  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  families  —  some  nine  hundred  and 
seventy-five  thousand  persons,  living  with  a  degree  of 
comfort,  which,  I  think,  is  not  anywhere  enjoyed  by 
such  a  population  in  the  Old  World.  They  are  mainly 
industrious,  sober,  intelligent,  and  moral.  Everything 


94-  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

thrives ;  agriculture,  manufactures,  commerce.  "  The 
carpenter  encourages  the  goldsmith ;  he  that  smites 
the  anvil,  him  that  smootheth  with  the  hammer."  Look 
at  the  farms,  where  intelligent  labor  wins  bread  and 
beauty  both,  out  of  the  sterile  soil  and  climate  not  over- 
indulgent.  Behold  the  shops  all  over  the  State;  the 
small  shops  where  the  shoemaker  holds  his  work  in 
his  lap,  and  draws  his  thread  by  his  own  strong  mus 
cles  ;  and  the  large  shops  where  machines,  animate  with 
human  intelligence,  hold,  with  iron  grasp,  their  costlier 
work  in  their  lap,  and  spin  out  the  delicate  staple  of  Sea 
Island  cotton.  Look  at  all  this ;  it  is  a  pleasant  sight. 
Look  at  our  hundreds  of  villages,  by  river,  mountain, 
and  sea ;  behold  the  comfortable  homes,  the  people  well 
fed,  well  clad,  well  instructed.  Look  at  the  school- 
houses,  the  colleges  of  the  people ;  at  the  higher  sem 
inaries  of  learning;  at  the  poor  man's  real  college 
further  back  in  the  interior,  where  the  mechanic's  and 
farmer's  son  gets  his  education,  often  a  poor  one, 
still  something  to  be  proud  of.  Look  at  the  churches, 
where,  every  Sunday,  the  best  words  of  Hebrew  and  of 
Christian  saints  are  read  out  of  this  Book,  and  all 
men  are  asked,  once  in  the  week,  to  remember  they 
have  a  Father  in  heaven,  a  faith  to  swear  by,  and  a 
heaven  to  live  for,  and  a  conscience  to  keep.  I  know 
the  fault  of  these  churches.  I  am  not  in  the  habit  of 
excusing  them;  still  I  know  their  excellence,  and  I  will 
not  be  the  last  man  to  acknowledge  that.  Look  at  the 
roads  of  earth  and  iron  which  join  villages  together, 
and  make  the  State  a  whole.  Follow  the  fisherman 
from  his  rocky  harbor  at  Cape  Ann  ;  follow  the  mari 
ner  in  his  voyage  round  the  world  of  waters;  see  the 
industry,  the  intelligence,  and  the  comfort  of  the  peo 
ple.  I  think  Massachusetts  is  a  State  to  be  thankful 


STATE  OF  THE  NATION  95 

for.  There  are  faults  in  her  institutions  and  in  her 
laws,  that  need  change  very  much.  In  her  form  of 
society,  in  her  schools,  in  her  colleges,  there  is  much 
which  clamors  loudly  for  alteration  —  very  much  in 
her  churches  to  be  Christianized.  These  changes  are 
going  quietly  forward,  and  will  in  time  be  brought 
about. 

I  love  to  look  on  this  State,  its  material  prosperity, 
its  increase  in  riches,  its  intelligence  and  industry, 
and  the  beautiful  results  that  are  seen  all  about  us 
to-day.  I  love  to  look  on  the  face  of  the  people,  in 
halls  and  churches,  in  markets  and  factories;  to  think 
of  our  great  ideas ;  of  the  institutions  which  have  come 
of  them ;  of  our  schools  and  colleges,  and  all  the  institu 
tions  for  making  men  wiser  and  better;  to  think  of 
the  noble  men  we  have  in  the  midst  of  us,  in  every 
walk  of  life,  who  eat  an  honest  bread,  who  love  man 
kind,  and  love  God,  who  have  consciences  they  mean 
to  keep,  and  souls  which  they  intend  to  save. 

The  great  business  of  society  is  not  merely  to  have 
farms,  and  ships,  and  shops  —  the  greater  shops  and 
the  less  —  but  to  have  men ;  men  that  are  conscious 
of  their  manhood,  self-respectful,  earnest  men,  that 
have  a  faith  in  the  living  God.  I  do  not  think  we  have 
many  men  of  genius.  We  have  very  few  that  I  call 
great  men ;  I  wish  there  were  more ;  but  we  have  an 
intelligent,  an  industrious,  and  noble  people  here  in 
Massachusetts,  which  we  may  be  proud  of. 

Let  us  go  a  step  further.  New  England  is  like 
Massachusetts  in  the  main,  with  local  differences  only. 
All  the  North  is  like  New  England  in  the  main;  this 
portion  is  better  in  one  thing;  that  portion  worse  in 
another  thing.  Our  ideas  are  their  ideas;  our  insti 
tutions  are  the  same.  Some  of  the  Northern  States 


96  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

have  institutions  better  than  we.  They  have  added 
to  our  experience.  In  revising  their  constitutions  and 
laws,  or  in  making  new  ones,  they  go  beyond  us,  they 
introduce  new  improvements,  and  those  new  improve 
ments  will  give  those  States  the  same  advantage  over 
us,  which  a  new  mill,  with  new  and  superior  machinery, 
has  over  an  old  mill,  with  old  and  inferior  machinery. 
By  and  by  we  shall  see  the  result,  and  take  counsel  from 
it,  I  trust. 

All  over  the  North  we  find  the  same  industry  and 
thrift,  and  similar  intelligence.  Here  attention  is 
turned  to  agriculture,  there  to  mining;  but  there  is  a 
similar  progress  and  zeal  for  improvement.  Atten 
tion  is  bestowed  on  schools  and  colleges,  on  academies 
and  churches.  There  is  the  same  abundance  of  ma 
terial  comfort.  Population  advances  rapidly,  pros 
perity  in  a  greater  ratio.  Everywhere  new  swarms 
pour  forth  from  the  old  hive,  and  settle  in  some  con 
venient  nook,  far  off  in  the  West.  So  the  frontier 
of  civilization  every  year  goes  forward,  further  from 
the  ocean.  Fifty  years  ago  it  was  on  the  Ohio ;  then 
on  the  Mississippi ;  then  on  the  upper  Missouri ;  pres 
ently  its  barrier  will  be  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and 
soon  it  will  pass  beyond  that  bar,  and  the  tide  of  the 
Atlantic  will  sweep  over  to  the  Pacific  —  yea,  it  is  al 
ready  there !  The  universal  Yankee  freights  his 
schooner  at  Bangor,  at  New  Bedford,  and  at  Boston, 
with  bricks,  timber,  frame-houses,  and  other  "  notions," 
and  by  and  by  drops  his  anchor  in  the  smooth  Pacific, 
in  the  Bay  of  St.  Francis.  We  shall  see  there,  ere 
long,  the  sentiments  of  New  England,  the  ideas  of  New 
England,  the  institutions  of  New  England ;  the  school- 
house,  the  meeting-house,  the  court-house,  the  town- 
house.  There  will  be  the  same  industry,  thrift,  Intel- 


STATE  OF  THE  NATION  97 

ligence,  morality,  and  religion,  and  the  idle  ground 
that  has  hitherto  borne  nothing  but  gold,  will  bear 
upon  its  breast  a  republic  of  men  more  precious  than 
the  gold  of  Ophir,  or  the  rubies  of  the  East. 

Here  I  wish  I  could  stop.  But  this  is  not  all.  The 
North  is  not  the  whole  nation;  New  England  is  not 
the  only  type  of  people.  There  are  other  States 
differing  widely  from  this.  In  the  Southern  States 
you  find  a  soil  more  fertile  under  skies  more  genial. 
Through  what  beautiful  rivers  the  Alleghenies  pour 
their  tribute  to  the  sea!  What  streams  beautify  the 
land  in  Georgia,  Alabama,  Louisiana,  and  Mississippi ! 
There  genial  skies  rain  beauty  on  the  soil.  Nature  is 
wanton  of  her  gifts.  There  rice,  cotton,  and  sugar 
grow;  there  the  olive,  the  orange,  the  fig,  all  find  a 
home.  The  soil  teems  with  luxuriance.  But  there  is 
not  the  same  wealth,  nor  the  same  comfort.  Only 
the  ground  is  rich.  You  witness  not  a  similar  thrift. 
Strange  is  it,  but  in  1840  the  single  State  of  New 
York  alone  earned  over  four  million  dollars  more 
than  the  six  States  of  North  and  South  Carolina, 
Georgia,  Alabama,  Louisiana,  and  Mississippi!  The 
annual  earnings  of  little  Massachusetts,  with  her  seven 
thousand  eight  hundred  square  miles,  are  nine  mil 
lion  dollars  more  than  the  earnings  of  all  Florida, 
Georgia,  and  South  Carolina!  The  little  county  of 
Essex,  with  ninety -five  thousand  souls  in  1840,  earned 
more  than  the  large  State  of  South  Carolina,  with 
five  hundred  and  ninety-five  thousand. 

In  those  States  we  miss  the  activity,  intelligence,  and 
enterprise  of  the  North.  You  do  not  find  the  little 
humble  school-house  at  every  corner;  the  frequent 
meeting-house  does  not  point  its  taper  finger  to  the 
sky.  Villages  do  not  adorn  the  margin  of  the  moun- 
XIII— 7 


98  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

tain  stream,  and  sea ;  shops  do  not  ring  with  industry ; 
roads  of  earth  and  iron  are  poorer  and  less  common. 
Temperance,  morality,  comfort  are  not  there  as  here. 
In  the  slave  States,  in  1840,  there  were  not  quite 
three  hundred  and  two  thousand  youths  and  maidens 
in  all  the  schools,  academies,  and  colleges  of  the  South ; 
but  in  1840,  in  the  free  States  of  the  North  there  were 
more  than  two  million  two  hundred  and  twelve  thou 
sand  in  such  institutions !  Little  Rhode  Island  has  five 
thousand  more  girls  and  boys  at  school  than  large 
South  Carolina.  The  State  of  Ohio  alone  has  more 
than  seventeen  thousand  children  at  school  beyond 
what  the  whole  fifteen  slave  States  can  boast.  The 
permanent  literature  of  the  nation  all  comes  from 
the  North ;  your  historians  are  from  that  quarter  — 
your  Sparkses,  your  Bancrofts,  your  Hildreths,  and 
Prescotts,  and  Ticknors ;  the  poets  are  from  the  same 
quarter  —  your  Whittiers  and  Longfellows,  and  Low 
ells,  and  Bryants ;  the  men  of  literature  and  religion  — 
your  Channings,  and  Irvings,  and  Emersons  —  are 
from  the  same  quarter !  Preaching  —  it  is  everywhere, 
and  sermons  are  as  thick  almost  as  autumnal  leaves ; 
but  who  ever  heard  of  a  great  or  famous  clergyman 
in  a  Southern  State?  of  a  great  and  famous  sermon 
that  rang  through  the  nation  from  that  quarter?  No 
man.  Your  Edwards  of  old  time,  and  your  Beechers, 
old  and  young,  your  Channing  and  Buckminster,  and 
the  rest,  names  which  throng  to  every  man's  lips  —  all 
are  from  the  North.  Nature  has  done  enough  for  the 
South ;  God's  cup  of  blessing  runs  over  —  and  yet  you 
see  the  result !  But  there  has  been  no  pestilence  at  the 
South  more  than  at  the  North ;  no  earthquake  has 
torn  the  ground  beneath  their  feet;  no  war  has  come 
to  disturb  them  more  than  us.  The  government  has 


STATE  OF  THE  NATION  99 

never  laid  a  withering  hand  on  their  commerce,  their 
agriculture,  their  schools  and  colleges,  their  litera 
ture  and  their  church. 

Still,  letting  alone  the  South  and  the  North  as 
such,  not  considering  either  exclusively,  we  are  one 
nation.  What  is  a  nation?  It  is  one  of  the  great 
parties  in  the  world.  It  is  a  sectional  party,  having 
geographical  limits ;  with  a  party  organization,  party 
opinions,  party  mottoes,  party  machinery,  party  lead 
ers,  and  party  followers;  with  some  capital  city  for 
its  party  headquarters.  There  has  been  an  Assyrian 
party,  a  British,  a  Persian,  an  Egyptian,  and  a  Roman 
party ;  there  is  now  a  Chinese  party,  and  a  Russian,  a 
Turkish,  a  French,  and  an  English  party ;  these  are 
also  called  nations.  We  belong  to  the  American  party, 
and  that  includes  the  North  as  well  as  the  South;  and 
so  all  are  brothers  of  the  same  party,  differing  amongst 
ourselves  —  but  from  other  nations  in  this,  that  we  are 
the  American  party,  and  not  the  Russian  nor  the 
English. 

We  ought  to  look  at  the  whole  American  party,  the 
North  and  South,  to  see  the  total  condition  of  the 
people.  Now  at  this  moment  there  is  no  lack  of  cat 
tle  and  corn  and  cloth  in  the  United  States,  North  or 
South,  only  they  are  differently  distributed  in  the  dif 
ferent  parts  of  the  land.  But  still  there  is  a  great 
excitement.  Men  think  the  nation  is  in  danger,  and 
for  many  years  there  has  not  been  so  great  an  outcry 
and  alarm  amongst  the  politicians.  The  cry  is  raised, 
"  The  Union  is  in  danger !  "  and  if  the  Union  falls, 
we  are  led  to  suppose  that  everything  falls.  There  will 
be  no  more  Thanksgiving  Days ;  there  will  be  anarchy 
and  civil  war,  and  the  ruin  of  the  American  people ! 
It  is  curious  to  see  this  material  plenty,  on  the  one 


100  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

side,   and  this   political   alarm  and   confusion   on   the 
other. 

Let  me  now  come  to  the  next  point,  and  consider  the 
causes  of  our  present  condition.  This  will  involve 
a  consideration  of  the  cause  of  our  prosperity  and  of 
our  alarm. 

1.  First,   there   are   some   causes   which   depend   on 
God  entirely ;  such  as  the  nature  of  the  country,  soil, 
climate,  and  the  like ;  its  minerals,  and  natural  pro 
ductions ;  its  seas  and  harbors,  mountains  and  rivers. 
In   respect  to  these  natural  advantages,  the  country 
is  abundantly  favored,  but  the  North  less  so  than  the 
South.     Tennessee,  Virginia,  and  Alabama,  certainly 
have  the  advantage  over  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  and 
Ohio.     That  I  pass  by ;  a  cause  which  depends  wholly 
on  God. 

2.  Then  again,  this  is  a  wide  and  new  country.     We 
have  room  to  spread.     We  have  not  to  contend  against 
old  institutions,  established  a  thousand  years  ago ;   and 
that  is  one  very  great  advantage.     I  make  no  doubt 
that  in  crossing  the  ocean,  our  fathers  helped  forward 
the  civilization  of  the  world  at  least  a  thousand  years ; 
I  mean  to  say,  it  would  have  taken  mankind  a  thou 
sand  years  longer  to  reach  the  condition  we  have  at 
tained   in   New  England,   if  the  attempt  had  of  ne 
cessity  been  made  on  the  soil  of  the  Old  World  and 
in  the  face  of  its  institutions. 

3.  Then,  as  a  third  thing,  much  depends  on  the  pe 
culiar  national  character.     Well,  the   freemen   in  the 
North  and  South  are  chiefly  from  the  same  race,  this 
indomitable   Caucasian   stock ;  mainly    from   the   same 
composite  stock,  the  tribe  produced  by  the  mingling 
of  Saxon,  Danish,  and  Norman  blood.     That  makes 
the   present   English   nation,   and  the   American   also. 


STATE  OF  THE  NATION- .  1O1 

This  is  a  very  powerful  tribe  of  men,  possessing  some 
very  noble  traits  of  character;  active  and  creative  in 
all  the  arts  of  peace ;  industrious  as  a  nation  never  was 
before;  enterprising,  practical;  fond  of  liberty,  fond 
also  of  law,  capable  of  organizing  themselves  into 
great  masses,  and  acting  with  a  complete  concert  and 
unity  of  action.  In  these  respects,  I  think  this  tribe, 
which  I  will  call  the  English  tribe,  is  equal  to  any 
race  of  men  in  the  world  that  has  been  or  is ;  perhaps 
superior  to  any  race  that  has  been  developed  hitherto. 
But  in  what  relates  to  the  higher  reason  and  imagina 
tion,  to  the  affections  and  to  the  soul,  I  think  this  tribe 
is  not  so  eminent  as  some  others  have  been.  North 
and  South,  the  people  are  alike  of  Anglo-Norman 
descent. 

4.  Another  cause  of  our  prosperity,  which  depends 
a  great  deal  on  ourselves,  is  this  —  the  absence  of  war 
and  of  armies.     In  France,  with  a  population  of  less 
than  forty  millions,  half  a  million  are  constantly  under 
arms.     The  same  state  of  things  prevails  substantially 
in  Austria,  Prussia,  and  in  all  the  German  States.   Here 
in  America,  with  a  population  of  twenty  millions,  there 
is  not  one  in  a  thousand  that  is  a  soldier  or  marine. 
In  time  of  peace,  I  think  we  waste  vast  sums  in  mili 
tary  preparations,  as  we  did  in  actual  war  not  long 
since.      Still,  when  I  compare  this  nation  with  others, 
I  think  we  have  cause  to  felicitate   ourselves  on  the 
absence  of  military  power. 

5.  Again,  much  depends  on  the  past  history  of  the 
race;  and  here  there  is  a  wide  difference  between  the 
different  parts  of  the  country.     New  England  was  set 
tled  by  a  religious  colony.     I  will  not  say  that  all  the 
men  who  came  here  from  1620  to  1650  were  moved  by 
religious  motives  ;  but  the  controlling  men  were  brought 


•  102  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAX 

here  by  these  motives,  and  no  other.  Many  who  cared 
less  for  religious  ideas,  came  for  the  sake  of  a  great 
moral  idea,  for  the  sake  of  obtaining  a  greater  degree 
of  civil  freedom  than  they  had  at  home.  Now  the 
Pilgrims  and  the  Puritans  are  only  a  little  way  behind 
us.  The  stiff  ruff,  the  peaked  beard,  the  "  Prophesy 
ing  Book  "  are  only  six  or  seven  generations  behind  the 
youngest  of  us.  The  character  of  the  Puritans  has 
given  to  New  England  much  of  its  present  character 
and  condition.  They  founded  schools  and  colleges ; 
they  trained  up  their  children  in  a  stern  discipline 
which  we  shall  not  forget  for  two  centuries  to  come. 
The  remembrance  of  their  trials,  their  heroism,  and 
their  piety  affects  our  preaching  to-day,  and  our  poli 
tics  also.  The  difference  between  New  England  and 
New  York,  from  1750  to  1790,  is  the  difference  be 
tween  the  sons  of  the  religious  colony  and  the  sons 
of  the  worldly  colony.  You  know  something  of  New 
York  politics  before  the  Revolution,  and  also  since 
the  Revolution;  the  difference  between  New  York  and 
New  England  politics  at  that  time,  is  the  difference 
between  the  sons  of  religious  men  and  the  sons  of  men 
who  cared  very  much  less  for  religion. 

Just  now,  when  I  said  that  all  the  North  is  like  New 
England,  I  meant  substantially  so.  The  West  is  our 
own  daughter.  New  England  has  helped  people  the 
western  part  of  the  State  of  New  York;  and  the  best 
elements  of  New  England  character  mingling  with 
others,  its  good  qualities  will  appear  in  the  politics  of 
that  mighty  State. 

The  South,  in  the  main,  had  a  very  different  origin 
from  the  North.  I  think  few  if  any  persons  settled 
there  for  religion's  sake ;  or  for  the  sake  of  freedom 
in  the  State.  It  was  not  a  moral  idea  which  sent  men 


STATE  OF  THE  NATION  103 

to  Virginia,  Georgia,  and  Carolina.  "Men  do  not 
gather  grapes  of  thorns."  The  difference  of  the  seed 
will  appear  in  the  difference  of  the  crop.  In  the  char 
acter  of  the  people  of  the  North  and  South,  it  appears 
at  this  day.  The  North  is  not  to  be  praised,  nor  the 
South  to  be  blamed  for  this ;  they  could  not  help  it : 
but  certainly  it  is  an  advantage  to  be  descended  from 
a  race  of  industrious,  moral  and  religious  men;  to 
have  been  brought  up  under  their  training,  to  have 
inherited  their  ideas  and  institutions, —  and  this  is  a 
circumstance  which  we  make  quite  too  little  account  of. 
I  pass  by  that. 

6.  There  are  other  causes  which  depend  on  ourselves 
entirely.  Much  depends  on  the  political  and  social  or 
ganization  of  the  people.  There  is  no  denying  that 
government  has  a  great  influence  on  the  character  of 
the  people ;  on  the  character  of  every  man.  The  dif 
ference  between  the  development  of  England  and  the 
development  of  Spain  at  this  day,  is  mainly  the  result 
of  different  forms  of  government ;  for  three  centuries 
ago  the  Spaniards  were  as  noble  a  race  as  the  English. 

A  government  is  carried  on  by  two  agencies :  the  first 
is  public  opinion,  and  the  next  is  public  law, —  the  fun 
damental  law  which  is  the  Constitution,  and  the  sub 
sidiary  laws  which  carry  out  the  ideas  of  the  Consti 
tution.  In  a  government  like  this,  public  opinion 
always  precedes  the  laws,  overrides  them,  takes  the  place 
of  laws  when  there  are  none,  and  hinders  their  execution 
when  they  do  not  correspond  to  public  opinion.  Thus 
the  public  opinion  of  South  Carolina  demands  that 
a  free  colored  seaman  from  the  North  shall  be  shut 
up  in  jail  at  his  employer's  cost.  The  public  opinion 
of  Charleston  is  stronger  than  the  public  law  of  the 
United  States  on  that  point,  stronger  than  the  Con- 


104  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

stitution,  and  nobody  dares  execute  the  laws  of  the 
United  States  in  that  matter.  These  two  things  should 
always  be  looked  at,  to  understand  the  causes  of  a 
nation's  condition  —  the  public  opinion,  as  well  as  the 
public  law.  Let  me  know  the  opinions  of  the  men  be 
tween  twenty-five  and  thirty-five  years  of  age,  and  I 
know  what  the  laws  will  be. 

Now  in  public  opinion  and  in  the  laws  of  the  United 
States,  there  are  two  distinct  political  ideas.  I  shall 
call  one  the  democratic,  and  the  other  the  despotic 
idea.  Neither  is  wholly  sectional;  both  chiefly  so. 
Each  is  composed  of  several  simpler  ideas.  Each 
has  enacted  laws,  and  established  institutions.  This 
is  the  democratic  idea ;  that  all  men  are  endowed 
by  their  Creator  with  certain  natural  rights,  which 
only  the  possessor  can  alienate;  that  all  men  are  equal 
in  these  rights ;  that  amongst  them  is  the  right  to  life, 
liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness;  that  the  busi 
ness  of  the  government  is  to  preserve  for  every  man 
all  of  these  rights  until  he  alienates  them. 

This  democratic  idea  is  founded  in  human  nature, 
and  comes  from  the  nature  of  God  who  made  human 
nature.  To  carry  it  out  politically  is  to  execute  jus 
tice,  which  is  the  will  of  God.  This  idea,  in  its  reali 
zation,  leads  to  a  democracy,  a  government  of  all, 
for  all,  by  all.  Such  a  government  aims  to  give  every 
man  all  his  natural  rights ;  it  desires  to  have  political 
power  in  all  hands,  property  in  all  hands,  wisdom  in  all 
heads,  goodness  in  all  hearts,  religion  in  all  souls.  I 
mean  the  religion  that  makes  a  man  self-respectful, 
earnest,  and  faithful  to  the  Infinite  God,  that  dis 
poses  him  to  give  all  men  their  rights,  and  to  claim 
his  own  rights  at  all  times ;  the  religion  which  is  piety 
within  you,  and  goodness  in  the  manifestation.  Such 


STATE  OF  THE  NATION  105 

a  government  has  laws,  and  the  aim  thereof  is  to  give 
justice  to  all  men;  it  has  officers  to  execute  these  laws, 
for  the  sake  of  justice.  Such  a  government  founds 
schools  for  all ;  looks  after  those  most  who  are  most  in 
need;  defends  and  protects  the  feeblest  as  well  as  the 
richest  and  most  powerful.  The  State  is  for  the  indi 
vidual,  and  for  all  the  individuals,  and  so  it  reverences 
justice,  where  the  rights  of  all,  and  the  interests  of  all, 
exactly  balance.  It  demands  free  speech;  everything 
is  open  to  examination,  discussion,  "  agitation,"  if  you 
will.  Thought  is  to  be  free,  speech  to  be  free,  work 
to  be  free,  and  worship  to  be  free.  Such  is  the  demo 
cratic  idea,  and  such  the  State  which  it  attempts  to 
found. 

The  despotic  idea  is  just  the  opposite:  That  all  men 
are  not  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  natural 
rights  which  only  the  possessor  can  alienate,  but  that 
one  man  has  a  natural  right  to  overcome  and  make  use 
of  some  other  men  for  his  advantage  and  their  hurt ; 
that  all  men  are  not  equal  in  their  rights ;  that  all  men 
have  not  a  natural  right  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pur 
suit  of  happiness ;  that  government  is  not  instituted  to 
preserve  these  natural  rights  for  all. 

This  idea  is  founded  on  the  excess  of  human  passions, 
and  it  represents  the  compromise  between  a  man's  idle 
ness  and  his  appetite.  It  is  not  based  on  facts  eternal 
in  human  nature,  but  on  facts  transient  in  human  na 
ture.  It  does  not  aim  to  do  justice  to  all,  but  injustice 
to  some ;  to  take  from  one  man  what  he  ought  not  to 
lose,  and  give  to  another  what  he  ought  not  to  get. 

This  leads  to  aristocracy  in  various  forms,  to  the 
government  of  all  by  means  of  a  part  and  for  the 
sake  of  a  part.  In  this  state  of  things  political  power 
must  be  in  few  hands ;  property  in  few  hands ;  wisdom 


106  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

in  few  heads ;  goodness  in  few  hearts,  and  religion  in 
few  souls.  I  mean  the  religion  which  leads  a  man  to 
respect  himself  and  his  fellow-men ;  to  be  earnest,  and 
to  trust  in  the  Infinite  God ;  to  demand  his  rights  of 
other  men  and  to  give  their  rights  to  them. 

Neither  the  democratic  nor  the  despotic  idea  is  fully 
made  real  anywhere  in  the  world.  There  is  no  perfect 
democracy,  nor  perfect  aristocracy.  There  are  demo 
crats  in  every  actual  aristocracy ;  despots  in  every 
actual  democracy.  But  in  the  Northern  States  the 
democratic  idea  prevails  extensively  and  chiefly,  and 
we  have  made  attempts  at  establishing  a  democratic 
government.  In  the  Southern  States  the  despotic  idea 
prevails  extensively  and  chiefly,  and  they  have  made  at 
tempts  to  establish  an  aristocratic  government.  In  an 
aristocracy  there  are  two  classes :  the  people  to  be  gov 
erned,  and  the  governing  class,  the  nobility  which  is 
to  govern.  This  nobility  may  be  movable,  and  depend 
on  wealth ;  or  immovable,  and  depend  on  birth.  In  the 
Southern  States  the  nobility  is  immovable,  and  depends 
on  color. 

In  1840,  in  the  North  there  were  ten  million  free 
men,  and  in  the  South  five  million  free  men  and  three 
million  slaves.  Three-eighths  of  the  population  have 
no  human  rights  at  all  —  privileges  as  cattle,  not  rights 
as  men.  There  the  slave  is  protected  by  law,  as  your 
horse  and  your  ox,  but  has  few  more  human  rights. 

Here,  now,  is  the  great  cause  of  the  difference  in  the 
condition  of  the  North  and  South;  of  the  difference 
in  the  material  results,  represented  by  towns  and  vil 
lages,  by  farms  and  factories,  ships  and  shops.  Here 
is  the  cause  of  the  difference  in  schools,  colleges, 
churches,  and  in  the  literature ;  the  cause  of  the  differ 
ence  in  men.  The  South,  with  its  despotic  idea,  dis- 


STATE  OF  THE  NATION  107 

honors  labor,  but  wishes  to  compromise  between  its  idle 
ness  and  its  appetite,  and  so  kidnaps  men  to  do  its 
work.  The  North,  with  its  democratic  idea,  honors 
labor ;  does  not  compromise  between  its  idleness  and  its 
appetite,  but  lays  its  bones  to  the  work  to  satisfy  its 
appetite;  instead  of  kidnapping  a  man  who  can  run 
away,  it  kidnaps  the  elements,  subdues  them  to  its  com 
mand,  and  makes  them  do  its  work.  It  does  not  kid 
nap  a  freeman,  but  catches  the  winds,  and  chains  them 
to  its  will.  It  lays  hands  on  fire  and  water,  and  breeds 
a  new  giant,  which  "  courses  land  and  ocean  without 
rest,"  or  serves  while  it  stands  and  waits,  driving  the 
mills  of  the  land.  It  kidnaps  the  Connecticut  and  the 
Merrimac ;  does  not  send  slave-ships  to  Africa,  but  en 
gineers  to  New  Hampshire ;  and  it  requires  no  fugitive 
slave  law  to  keep  the  earth  and  sea  from  escaping,  or 
the  rivers  of  New  England  from  running  up  hill. 

This  is  not  quite  all.  I  have  just  now  tried  to  hint 
at  the  causes  of  the  difference  in  the  condition  of  the 
people,  North  and  South.  Now  let  me  show  the  cause 
of  the  agitation  and  alarm.  We  begin  with  a  sen 
timent;  that  spreads  to  an  idea;  the  idea  grows  to  an 
act,  to  an  institution ;  then  it  has  done  its  work. 

Men  seek  to  spread  their  sentiments  and  ideas.  The 
democratic  idea  tries  to  spread ;  the  despotic  idea  tries 
to  spread.  For  a  long  time  the  nation  held  these  two 
ideas  in  its  bosom,  not  fully  conscious  of  either  of 
them.  Both  came  here  in  a  state  of  infancy,  so  to  say, 
with  our  fathers ;  the  democratic  idea  very  dimly  un 
derstood;  the  despotic  idea  not  fully  carried  out,  yet 
it  did  a  great  mischief  in  the  State  and  Church.  In 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  writ  by  a  young 
man,  only  the  democratic  idea  appears,  and  that  idea 
never  got  so  distinctly  stated  before.  But  mark  you, 


108  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

and  see  the  confusion  in  men's  minds.  That  demo 
cratic  idea  was  thus  distinctly  stated  by  a  man  who 
was  a  slaveholder  almost  all  his  life;  and  unless  pub 
lic  rumor  has  been  unusually  false,  he  has  left  some 
of  his  own  offspring  under  the  influence  of  the  despotic 
and  not  the  democratic  idea;  slaves  and  not  free  men. 

In  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  these  two 
ideas  appear.  It  was  thought  for  a  long  time  they 
were  not  incompatible ;  it  was  thought  the  great  Amer 
ican  party  might  recognize  both,  and  a  compromise 
was  made  between  the  two.  It  was  thought  each  might 
go  about  its  own  work  and  let  the  other  alone ;  that  the 
hawk  and  the  hen  might  dwell  happily  together  in  the 
same  coop,  each  lay  her  own  eggs,  and  rear  her  own 
brood,  and  neither  put  a  claw  upon  the  other. 

In  the  meantime  each  founded  institutions  after  its 
kind ;  in  the  Northern  States,  democratic  institutions ; 
in  the  Southern,  aristocratic.  What  once  lay  latent 
in  the  mind  of  the  nation  has  now  become  patent.  The 
thinking  part  of  the  nation  sees  the  difference  between 
the  two.  Some  men  are  beginning  to  see  that  the  two 
are  completely  incompatible,  and  cannot  be  good 
friends.  Others  are  asking  us  to  shut  our  eyes  and  not 
see  it,  and  they  think  that  so  long  as  our  eyes  are  shut, 
all  things  will  go  on  peacefully.  Such  is  the  wisdom 
of  the  ostrich. 

At  first  the  trouble  coming  from  this  source  was  a 
very  little  cloud,  far  away  on  the  horizon,  not  bigger 
than  a  man's  hand.  It  seemed  so  in  1804,  when  the 
brave  senator  from  Massachusetts,  a  Hartford  Con 
vention  Federalist,  a  name  that  calls  the  blood  to  some 
rather  pale  cheeks  now-a-days,  proposed  to  alter  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  cut  off  the 
North  from  all  responsibility  for  slaverv.  It  was  a 


STATE  OF  THE  NATION  109 

little  cloud  not  bigger  than  a  man's  hand;  now  it  is  a 
great  cloud  which  covers  the  whole  hemisphere  of 
heaven,  and  threatens  to  shut  out  the  day. 

In  the  last  session  of  Congress,  ten  months  long,  the 
great  matter  was  the  contest  between  the  two  ideas. 
All  the  newspapers  rang  with  the  battle.  Even  the 
pulpits  now  and  then  alluded  to  it;  forgetting  their 
"  decency,  that  they  must  preach  *  only  religion,'  which 
has  not  the  least  to  do  with  politics  and  the  welfare  of 
the  State." 

Each  idea  has  its  allies,  and  it  is  worth  while  to  run 
our  eye  over  the  armies  and  see  what  they  amount  to. 
The  idea  of  despotism  has  for  its  allies :  — 

1.  The  slaveholders  of  the  South  with  their  depen 
dents  ;  and  the  servile  class  who-  take  their  ideas  from 
the  prominent  men  about  them.     This  servile  class  is 
more  numerous  at  the  South  than  even  at  the  North. 

2.  It  has  almost  all  the  distinguished  politicians  of 
the  North  and  South;  the  distinguished  great  politi 
cians  in  the  Congress  of  the  nation,  and  the  distin 
guished  little  politicians  in  the  Congresses  of  the  sev 
eral   States. 

3.  It  has  likewise  the  greater  portion  of  the  wealthy 
and  educated  men  in  many  large  towns  of  the  North; 
with  their  dependents  and  the  servile  men  who  take 
their  opinions  from  the  prominent  class  about  them. 
And  here,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  I  must  reckon  the  greater 
portion  of  the  prominent  and  wealthy  clergy,  the  clergy 
in  the  large  cities.     Once  this  class  of  men  were  mas 
ters  of  the  rich  and  educated;  and  very  terrible  mas 
ters  they  were  in  Madrid  and  in  Rome.     Now  their 
successors  are  doing  penance  for  those  old  sins. 

is  a  long  lane,"  they  say,  "  which  has  no  turn,"  and 
the  clerical  has  had  a  very  short  and  complete  turn. 


110  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

When  I  say  the  majority  of  the  clergy  in  prominent 
situations  in  the  large  cities  are  to  be  numbered  among 
the  allies  of  the  despotic  idea,  and  are  a  part  of  the 
great  pro-slavery  army,  I  know  there  are  some  noble 
and  honorable  exceptions,  men  who  do  not  fear  the 
face  of  gold,  but  reverence  the  face  of  God. 

Then  on  the  side  of  the  democratic  idea  there  are :  — 

1.  The   great   mass   of  the  people   at   the   North; 
farmers,    mechanics,    and   the   humbler    clergy.     This 
does  not  appear  so  at  first  sight,  because  these  men 
have  not  much   confidence  in  themselves,   and  require 
to  be  shaken  many  times  before  they  are  thoroughly 
waked  up. 

2.  Beside  that,  there   are  a  few  politicians   at  the 
North  who  are  on  this  side;  some  distinguished  ones  in 
Congress,  some  less  distinguished  ones  in  the  various 
legislatures  of  the  North. 

3.  Next  there  are  men,  North  and  South,  who  look 
at  the   great   causes   of  the   welfare   of  nations,   and 
make  up  their  minds  historically,  from  the   facts   of 
human    history,    against    despotism.     Then    there    are 
such  as  study  the  great  principles  of  justice  and  truth, 
and   judge    from   human   nature,   and   decide   against 
despotism.     And  then  such  as  look  at  the  law  of  God, 
and  believe  Christianity  is  sense  and  not  nonsense ;  that 
Christianity  is  the  ideal  for  earnest  men,  not  a  pre 
tense  for  a  frivolous  hypocrite.     Some  of  these  men 
are  at  the  South ;  the  greater  number  are  in  the  North ; 
and  here  again  you  see  the  difference  between  the  son 
of  the  planter  and  the  son  of  the  Puritan. 

Here  are  the  allies,  the  threefold  armies  of  despotism 
on  the  one  side,  and  of  democracy  on  the  other. 

Now  it  is  not  possible  for  these  two  ideas  to  continue 
to  live  in  peace.  For  a  long  time  each  knew  not  the 


STATE  OF  THE  NATION  111 

other,  and  they  were  quiet.  The  men  who  clearly 
knew  the  despotic  idea,  thought,  in  1787,  it  would  die 
"  of  a  rapid  consumption :  "  they  said  so ;  but  the 
culture  of  cotton  has  healed  its  deadly  wound,  at  least 
for  the  present.  After  the  brief  state  of  quiet,  there 
came  a  state  of  armed  neutrality.  They  were  hostile, 
but  under  bonds  to  keep  the  peace.  Now  the  neu 
trality  is  over;  attempts  are  made  to  compromise,  to 
compose  the  difficulty.  Various  peace  measures  were 
introduced  to  the  Senate  last  summer;  but  they  all 
turned  out  war  measures,  every  one  of  them.  Now 
there  is  a  trial  of  strength  between  the  two.  Which 
shall  recede?  which  be  extended?  Freedom  or  slav 
ery  ?  That  is  the  question ;  refuse  to  look  at  it  as  we 
will, —  refrain  or  refrain  not  from  "  political  agita 
tion,"  that  is  the  question. 

In  the  last  Congress  it  is  plain  the  democratic  idea 
was  beaten.  Congress  said  to  California,  "  You  may 
come  in,  and  you  need  not  keep  slaves  unless  you 
please."  It  said,  "  You  shall  not  bring  slaves  to 
Washington  for  sale,  you  may  do  that  at  Norfolk, 
Alexandria,  and  Georgetown,  it  is  just  as  well,  and 
this  '  will  pacify  the  North.'  "  Utah  and  New  Mexico 
were  left  open  to  slavery,  and  fifty  thousand  or  sev 
enty  thousand  square  miles  and  ten  million  dollars  were 
given  to  Texas  lest  she  should  "  dissolve  the  Union," 
-  without  money  or  men  !  To  crown  all,  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill  became  a  law. 

I  think  it  is  very  plain  that  the  democratic  idea  was 
defeated,  and  it  is  easy  to  see  why.  The  three  pow 
ers  which  are  the  allies  of  the  despotic  idea,  were  ready, 
and  could  act  in  concert  —  the  Southern  slaveholders, 
the  leading  politicians,  the  rich  and  educated  men  of 
the  Northern  cities,  with  their  appendages  and  servile 


112  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

adherents.  But  since  then,  the  conduct  of  the  people 
in  the  North,  and  especially  in  this  State,  shows  that 
the  nation  has  not  gone  that  way  yet.  I  think  the 
nation  never  will ;  that  the  idea  of  freedom  will  never 
be  turned  back  in  this  blessed  North.  I  feel  sure  it 
will  at  last  overcome  the  idea  of  slavery. 

I  come  to  this  conclusion,  firstly,  from  the  charac 
ter  of  the  tribe:  this  Anglo-Norman-Saxon  tribe  loves 
law,  deliberation,  order,  method ;  it  is  the  most  method 
ical  race  that  ever  lived.  But  it  loves  liberty,  and 
while  it  loves  law,  it  loves  law  chiefly  because  it  keeps 
liberty ;  and  without  that  it  would  trample  law  under 
foot. 

See  the  conduct  of  England.  She  spent  one  hun 
dred  millions  of  dollars  in  the  attempt  to  wipe  slavery 
from  the  West  Indies.  She  keeps  a  fleet  on  the  coast 
of  Africa  to  put  down  the  slave-trade  there  —  where 
we  also  have,  I  think,  a  sloop-of-war.  She  has  just 
concluded  a  treaty  with  Brazil  for  the  suppression  of 
the  slave-trade  in  that  country,  one  of  her  greatest 
achievements  in  that  work  for  many  years. 

See  how  the  sons  of  the  Puritans,  as  soon  as  they 
came  to  a  consciousness  of  what  the  despotic  idea  was, 
took  their  charters  and  wiped  slavery  clean  out,  first 
from  Massachusetts,  and  then  from  the  other  States, 
one  after  another.  See  how  every  Northern  State,  in 
revising  its  constitution,  or  in  making  a  new  one,  de 
clares  all  men  are  created  equal,  that  all  have  the  right 
to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness. 

Then  the  religion  of  the  North  demands  the  same 
thing.  Professors  may  try  to  prove  that  the  Old  Tes 
tament  establishes  slavery ;  that  the  New  Testament 
justifies  the  existence  of  slavery;  that  Paul's  epistle  to 
Philemon  was  nothing  more  than  another  fugitive 


STATE  OF  THE  NATION  113 

slave  law,  that  Paul  himself  sent  back  a  runaway ;  but 
it  does  not  touch  the  religion  of  the  North.  We  know 
better.  We  say  if  the  Old  Testament  does  that  and  the 
New  Testament,  so  much  the  worse  for  them  both. 
We  say,  "  Let  us  look  and  see  if  Paul  was  so  be 
nighted,"  and  we  can  judge  for  ourselves  that  the  pro 
fessor  was  mistaken  more  than  the  apostle. 

Again,  the  spirit  of  the  age,  which  is  the  public 
opinion  of  the  nations,  is  against  slavery.  It  has 
broken  down  in  England,  France,  Italy,  and  Spain ; 
it  cannot  stand  long  against  civilization  and  good 
sense ;  against  the  political  economy  and  the  religious 
economy  of  the  civilized  world.  The  genius  of  free 
dom  stands  there,  year  out,  year  in,  and  hurls  fire 
brands  into  the  owl's  nest  of  the  prince  of  darkness, 
continually, —  and  is  all  this  with  no  effect? 

Besides-  that,  it  is  against  the  law  of  God.  That 
guides  this  universe,  treating  with  even-handed  justice 
the  great  geographical  parties,  Austrian,  Roman, 
British,  or  American,  with  the  same  justice  wherewith 
it  dispenses  its  blessings  to  the  little  local  factions  that 
divide  the  village  for  a  day ;  marshaling  mankind  for 
ward  in  its  mighty  progress  towards  wisdom,  freedom, 
goodness  towards  men,  and  piety  towards  God. 

Of  the  final  issue  I  have  no  doubt ;  but  no  man  can 
tell  what  shall  come  to  pass  in  the  meantime.  We 
see  that  political  parties  in  the  State  are  snapped 
asunder :  whether  the  national  party  shall  not  be  broken 
up,  no  man  can  say.  In  1750,  on  the  28th  day  of 
November,  no  man  in  Old  England  or  New  England 
could  tell  what  1780  would  bring  forth.  No  man, 
North  or  South,  can  tell  to-day  what  1880  will  bring 
to  pass.  He  must  be  a  bold  man  who  declares  to  the 
nation  that  no  new  political  machinery  shall  be  intro- 
XIII— 8 


114  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

duced,  in  the  next  thirty  years,  to  our  national  mill. 
We  know  not  what  a  day  shall  bring  forth,  but  we 
know  that  God  is  on  the  side  of  right  and  justice,  and 
that  they  will  prevail  so  long  as  God  is  God. 

Now,  then,  to  let  alone  details,  and  generalize  into 
one  all  the  causes  of  our  condition,  this  is  the  result: 
We  have  found  welfare  just  so  far  as  we  have  followed 
the  democratic  idea,  and  enacted  justice  into  law.  We 
have  lost  welfare  just  so  far  as  we  have  followed  the 
despotic  idea,  and  made  iniquity  into  a  statute.  So 
far  as  we  have  reaffirmed  the  ordinance  of  nature  and 
re-enacted  the  will  of  God,  we  have  succeeded.  So 
far  as  we  have  refused  to  do  that,  we  have  failed.  Of 
old  it  was  written,  "  Righteousness  exalteth  a  nation : 
but  sin  is  a  reproach  to  any  people." 

And  now  a  word  of  our  dangers.  There  seems  no 
danger  from  abroad;  from  any  foreign  State,  un 
less  we  begin  the  quarrel;  none  from  famine.  The 
real  danger,  in  one  word,  is  this— -That  we  shall  try 
to  enact  injustice  into  a  law,  and  with  the  force  of  the 
nation  to  make  iniquity  obeyed. 

See  some  of  the  special  forms  of  injustice  which 
threaten  us,  or  are  already  here.  I  shall  put  them  into 
the  form  of  ideas. 

1.  One,  common  among  politicians,  is, —  That  the 
State  is  for  a  portion  of  the  people,  not  the  whole. 
Thus  it  has  been  declared  that  the  Constitution  of  t>he 
United  States  did  not  recognize  the  three  million  slaves 
as  citizens,  or  extend  to  them  any  right  which  it  guar 
antees  to  other  men.  It  would  be  a  sad  thing  for  the 
State  to  declare  there  was  a  single  child  in  the  whole 
land  to  whom  it  owed  no  protection.  What,  then,  if 
it  attempts  to  take  three  millions  from  under  its  shield? 
In  obedience  to  this  false  idea,  the  counsel  has  been 


STATE  OF  THE  NATION  115 

given,  that  we  must  abstain  from  all  "  political  agita 
tion  "  of  the  most  important  matter  before  the  people. 
We  must  leave  that  to  our  masters,  for  the  State  is 
for  them,  it  is  not  for  you  and  me.  They  must  say 
whether  we  shall  "  agitate "  and  "  discuss "  these 
things  or  not.  The  politicians  are  our  masters,  and 
may  lay  their  fingers  on  our  lips  when  they  will. 

2.  The  next  false  idea  is, —  That  government  is 
chiefly  for  the  protection  of  property.  This  has  long 
been  the  idea  on  which  some  men  legislated,  but  on 
the  19th  day  of  this  month,  the  distinguished  Secretary 
of  State,*  in  a  speech  at  New  York,  used  these  words : 
"  The  great  object  of  government  is  the  protection  of 
property  at  home  and  respect  and  renown  abroad." 
You  see  what  the  policy  must  be  where  the  government 
is  for  the  protection  of  the  hat,  and  only  takes  care 
of  the  head  so  far  as  it  serves  to  wear  a  hat.  Here 
the  man  is  the  accident,  and  the  dollar  is  the  substance 
for  which  the  man  is  to  be  protected.  I  think  a  no 
tion  very  much  like  this  prevails  extensively  in  the 
great  cities  of  America,  North  and  South.  I  think 
the  chief  politicians  of  the  two  parties  are  agreed  in 
this  —  that  government  is  for  the  protection  of  prop 
erty,  and  everything  else  is  subsidiary.  With  many 
persons  politics  are  a  part  of  their  business ;  the  State 
House  and  the  custom-house  are  only  valued  for  their 
relation  to  trade.  This  idea  is  fatal  to  a  good  govern 
ment. 

Think  of  this,  that  "the  great  object  of  govern 
ment  is  the  protection  of  property."  Tell  that  to 
Samuel  Adams,  and  John  Hancock,  and  Washington, 
and  the  older  Winthrops,  and  the  Bradfords  and  Car 
vers  !  Why !  it  seems  as  if  the  buried  majesty  of  Mas- 

*  Daniel  Webster. 


116  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

sachusetts  would  start  out  of  the  ground,  and  with  its 
Bible  in  its  hand  say  —  This  is  false! 

3.  The  third  false  idea  is  this  —  That  you  are 
morally  bound  to  obey  the  statute,  let  it  be  never  so 
plainly  wrong  and  opposed  to  your  conscience.  This 
is  the  most  dangerous  of  all  the  false  ideas  yet  named. 
Ambitious  men,  in  an  act  of  passion,  make  iniquity 
into  a  law,  and  then  demand  that  you  and  I,  in  our 
act  of  prayer,  shall  submit  to  it  and  make  it  our  daily 
life;  that  we  shall  not  try  to  repeal  and  discuss  and 
agitate  it!  This  false  idea  lies  at  the  basis  of  every 
despot's  throne,  the  idea  that  men  can  make  right 
wrong,  and  wrong  right.  It  has  come  to  be  taught  in 
New  England,  to  be  taught  in  our  churches  —  though 
seldom  there,  to  their  honor  be  it  spoken,  except  in 
the  churches  of  commerce  in  large  towns  —  that  if 
wrong  is  law,  you  and  I  must  do  what  it  demands, 
though  conscience  declares  it  is  treason  against  man 
and  treason  against  God.  The  worst  doctrines  of 
Hobbes  and  Filmer  are  thus  revived. 

I  have  sometimes  been  amazed  at  the  talk  of  men 
who  call  on  us  to  keep  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  one  of 
the  most  odious  laws  in  a  world  of  odious  laws  —  a  law 
not  fit  to  be  made  or  kept.  I  have  been  amazed  that 
they  should  dare  to  tell  us  the  law  of  God,  writ  on  the 
heavens  and  our  hearts,  never  demanded  we  should 
disobey  the  laws  of  men !  Well,  suppose  it  were  so. 
Then  it  was  old  Daniel's  duty  at  Darius's  command 
to  give  up  his  prayer ;  but  he  prayed  three  times  a  day, 
with  his  windows  up.  Then  it  was  John's  and  Peter's 
duty  to  forbear  to  preach  of  Christianity ;  but  they 
said,  "  Whether  it  be  right  in  the  sight  of  God  to 
hearken  unto  you  more  than  unto  God,  judge  ye." 
Then  it  was  the  duty  of  Amram  and  Jochebed  to  take 


STATE  OF  THE  NATION  117 

up  their  new-born  Moses  and  cast  him  into  the  Nile ;  for 
the  law  of  King  Pharaoh,  commanding  it,  was  "  consti 
tutional,"  and  "  political  agitation "  was  discounte 
nanced  as  much  in  Goshen  as  in  Boston.  But  Daniel 
did  not  obey ;  John  and  Peter  did  not  fail  to  preach 
Christianity ;  and  Amram  and  Jochebed  refused  "  pas 
sive  obedience  "  to  the  king's  decree !  I  think  it  will 
take  a  strong  man  all  this  winter  to  reverse  the  judg 
ment  which  the  world  has  passed  on  these  three  cases. 

However,  there  is  another  ancient  case,  mentioned 
in  the  Bible,  in  which  the  laws  commanded  one  thing  and 
conscience  just  the  opposite.  Here  is  the  record  of 
the  law : — "  Now  both  the  chief  priests  and  the  Phari 
sees  had  given  a  commandment,  that  if  any  one  knew 
where  he  [Jesus]  were,  he  should  show  it,  that  they 
might  take  him."  Of  course,  it  became  the  official  and 
legal  business  of  each  disciple  who  knew  where  Christ 
was,  to  make  it  known  to  the  authorities.  No  doubt 
James  and  John  could  leave  all  and  follow  him,  with 
others  of  the  people  who  knew  not  the  law  of  Moses, 
and  were  accursed ;  nay,  the  women,  Martha  and  Mary, 
could  minister  unto  him  of  their  substance,  could  wash 
bis  feet  with  tears,  and  wipe  them  with  the  hairs  of 
their  head.  They  did  it  gladly,  of  their  own  free  will, 
and  took  pleasure  therein,  I  make  no  doubt.  There 
was  no  merit  in  that  — "  Any  man  can  perform  an 
agreeable  duty."  But  there  was  found  one  disciple 
who  could  "  perform  a  disagreeable  duty."  He  went, 
perhaps  "  with  alacrity,"  and  betrayed  his  Saviour  to 
the  marshal  of  the  district  of  Jerusalem,  who  was  called 
a  centurion.  Had  he  no  affection  for  Jesus?  No 
doubt;  but  he  could  conquer  his  prejudices,  while  Mary 
and  John  could  not. 

Judas  Iscariot  has  rather  a  bad  name  in  the  Chris- 


118  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

tian  world:  he  is  called  "the  son  of  perdition,"  in  the 
New  Testament,  and  his  conduct  is  reckoned  a  "  trans 
gression  ;  "  nay,  it  is  said  the  devil  "  entered  into  him," 
to  cause  this  hideous  sin.  But  all  this  it  seems  was 
a  mistake;  certainly,  if  we  are  to  believe  our  repub 
lican  lawyers  and  statesmen,  Iscariot  only  fulfilled  his 
"  constitutional  obligations."  It  was  only  "  on  that 
point,"  of  betraying  his  Saviour,  that  the  constitutional 
law  required  him  to  have  anything  to  do  with  Jesus. 
He  took  his  thirty  pieces  of  silver  —  about  fifteen  dol 
lars  ;  a  Yankee  is  to  do  it  for  ten,  having  fewer  preju 
dices  to  conquer  —  it  was  his  legal  fee,  for  value  re 
ceived.  True,  the  Christians  thought  it  was  "  the 
wages  of  iniquity,"  and  even  the  Pharisees  —  who  com 
monly  made  the  commandment  of  God  of  none  effect 
by  their  traditions  —  dared  not  defile  the  temple  with 
this  "  price  of  blood ;  "  but  it  was  honest  money.  It 
was  as  honest  a  fee  as  any  American  commissioner  or 
deputy  will  ever  get  for  a  similar  service.  How  mis 
taken  we  are !  Judas  Iscariot  is  not  a  traitor ;  he  was 
a  great  patriot;  he  conquered  his  prejudices,  per 
formed  a  disagreeable  duty  as  an  officer  of  "  high  mor 
als  and  high  principle ;  "  he  kept  the  law  and  the  Con 
stitution,  and  did  all  he  could  to  "  save  the  Union ;  " 
nay,  he  was  a  saint,  "  not  a  whit  behind  the  very  chief- 
est  apostles."  "  The  law  of  God  never  commands  us 
to  disobey  the  law  of  man."  Sancte  Iscariote,  ora  pro 
nobis! 

It  is  a  little  strange  to  hear  this  talk  in  Boston,  and 
hear  the  doctrine  of  passive  obedience  to  a  law  which 
sets  Christianity  at  defiance,  taught  here  in  the  face  of 
the  Adamses,  and  Hancock,  and  Washington !  It  is 
amazing  to  hear  this  talk,  respecting  such  a  law, 
amongst  merchants.  Do  they  keep  the  usury  laws? 


STATE  OF  THE  NATION  119 

I  never  heard  of  but  one  money-lender  who  kept  them,* 
and  he  has  been  a  long  time  dead,  and  I  think  he  left 
no  kith  nor  kin !  The  temperance  law, —  is  that  kept  ? 
The  fifteen  gallon  law, —  were  men  so  very  passive  in 
their  obedience  to  that,  that  they  could  not  even  "  agi 
tate?  "  yet  it  violated  no  law  of  God  —  was  not  un 
christian.  When  the  government  interferes  with  the 
rumsellers'  property,  the  law  must  be  trod  under  foot ; 
but  when  the  law  insists  that  a  man  shall  be  made  a 
slave,  I  must  give  up  conscience  in  my  act  of  prayer, 
and  stoop  to  the  vile  law  men  have  made  in  their  act  of 
passion ! 

It  is  curious  to  hear  men  talk  of  law  and  order  in 
Boston,  when  the  other  day  one  or  two  hundred  smooth 
faced  boys,  and  youths  beardless  as  girls,  could  dis 
turb  a  meeting  of  three  or  four  thousand  men,  for  two 
hours  long ;  and  the  chief  of  the  police  and  the  mayor 
of  the  city  stood  and  looked  on,  when  a  single  word 
from  their  lips  might  have  stilled  the  tumult  and  given 
honest  men  a  hearing,  f 

Talk  of  keeping  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law!  Come, 
come,  we  know  better.  Men  in  New  England  know 
better  than  this.  We  know  that  we  ought  not  to  keep 
a  wicked  law,  and  that  it  must  not  be  kept  when  the 
law  of  God  forbids ! 

But  the  effect  of  a  law  which  men  cannot  keep  with 
out  violating  conscience,  is  always  demoralizing. 
There  are  men  who  know  no  higher  law  than  the  statute 
of  the  State.  When  good  men  cannot  keep  a  law  that 
is  base,  some  bad  ones  will  say,  "  Let  us  keep  no  law 
at  all," — then  where  does  the  blame  lie?  On  him 
that  enacts  the  outrageous  law. 

*  The  late  Mr.  John  Parker. 

fAt    a    meeting    in    Faneuil    Hall    to    welcome    Mr.    George 
Thompson,  Nov.  15,  1850. 


120  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

The  idea  that  a  statute  of  man  frees  us  from  ob 
ligation  to  the  law  of  God,  is  a  dreadful  thing.  When 
that  becomes  the  deliberate  conviction  of  the  great 
mass  of  the  people,  North  or  South,  then  I  shall  despair 
of  human  nature;  then  I  shall  despair  of  justice,  and 
despair  of  God.  But  this  time  will  never  come. 

One  of  the  most  awful  spectacles  I  ever  saw,  was 
this :  A  vast  multitude  attempting,  at  an  orator's  sug 
gestion,  to  howl  down  the  "  higher  law ;  "  and  when 
he  said,  "  Will  you  have  this  to  rule  over  you?  "  they 
answered,  "  Never !  "  and  treated  the  "  higher  law  "  to 
a  laugh  and  a  howl !  It  was  done  in  Faneuil  Hall ;  * 
under  the  eyes  of  the  three  Adamses,  Hancock,  and 
Washington;  and  the  howl  rang  round  the  venerable 
arches  of  that  hall !  I  could  not  but  ask,  "  Why  do 
the  heathen  rage,  and  the  people  imagine  a  vain  thing? 
the  rulers  of  the  earth  set  themselves,  and  kings  take 
counsel  against  the  Lord  and  say,  '  Let  us  break  his 
bands  asunder,  and  cast  off  his  yoke  from  us.'  '  Then 
I  could  not  but  remember  that  it  was  written,  "  He 
that  sitteth  in  the  heavens  shall  laugh ;  the  Lord  shall 
have  them  in  derision.  He  taketh  up  the  isles  as  a 
very  little  thing,  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth  are 
as  grasshoppers  before  him."  Howl  down  the  law  of 
God  at  a  magistrate's  command !  Do  this  in  Boston ! 
Let  us  remember  this  —  but  with  charity. 

Men  say  there  is  danger  of  disunion,  of  our  losing 
fealty  for  the  Constitution.  I  do  not  believe  it  yet ! 
Suppose  it  be  so.  The  Constitution  is  the  machinery 
of  the  national  mill;  and  suppose  we  agree  to  take  it 
out  and  put  in  new ;  we  might  get  worse, —  very  true, 
but  we  might  get  better.  There  have  been  some  mod- 

*  At  the  "  Union  meeting,"  two  days  before  the  delivery  of 
this  sermon. 


STATE  OF  THE  NATION 

ern  improvements;  we  might  introduce  them  to  the 
State  as  well  as  the  mill.  But  I  do  not  believe  there 
is  this  danger.  I  do  not  believe  the  people  of  Massa 
chusetts  think  so.  I  think  they  are  strongly  attached 
to  the  Union  yet,  and  if  they  thought  the  Union  was  in 
peril  —  this  day,  and  everything  the  nation  prizes  was 
likely  to  be  destroyed, —  we  should  not  have  had  a 
meeting  of  a  few  thousands  in  Faneuil  Hall,  but  the 
people  would  have  filled  up  the  city  of  Worcester  with 
a  hundred  thousand  men,  if  need  be;  and  they  would 
have  come  with  the  cartridge-box  at  their  side,  and  the 
firelock  on  their  shoulder.  That  is  the  way  the  people 
of  Massachusetts  would  assemble  if  they  thought  there 
was  real  danger. 

I  do  not  believe  the  South  will  withdraw  from  the 
Union,  with  five  million  free  men,  and  three  million 
slaves.  I  think  Massachusetts  would  be  no  loser,  I  think 
the  North  would  be  no  loser ;  but  I  doubt  if  the  North 
will  yet  allow  them  to  go,  or  is  so  disposed.  Do  you 
think  the  South  is  so  mad  as  to  wish  it? 

But  I  think  I  know  of  one  cause  which  may  dissolve 
the  Union  —  one  which  ought  to  dissolve  it,  if  put  in 
action:  that  is,  a  serious  attempt  to  execute  the  Fugi 
tive  Slave  Law,  here  and  in  all  the  North.  I  mean  an 
attempt  to  recover  and  take  back  all  the  fugitive  slaves 
in  the  North,  and  to  punish,  with  fine  and  imprison 
ment,  all  who  aid  or  conceal  them.  The  South  has 
browbeat  us  again  and  again.  She  has  smitten  us  on 
the  one  cheek  with  "  Protection,"  and  we  have  turned 
the  other,  kissing  the  rod;  she  has  smitten  that  with 
"  Free  Trade."  She  has  imprisoned  our  citizens ; 
driven  off,  with  scorn  and  loathing,  our  officers  sent 
to  ask  constitutional  justice.  She  has  spit  upon  us. 
Let  her  come  to  take  back  the  fugitives  —  and  trust 
me,  she  "  will  wake  up  the  lion." 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

In  my  humble  opinion,  this  law  is  a  wedge  —  sharp 
at  one  end,  but  wide  at  the  other  —  put  in  between 
the  lower  planks  of  our  Ship  of  State.  If  it  be  driven 
home,  we  go  to  pieces.  But  I  have  no  thought  that 
that  will  be  done  quite  yet.  I  believe  the  great  poli 
ticians,  who  threaten  to  drive  it  through  the  gaping 
seams  of  our  argosy,  will  think  twice  before  they 
strike  again.  Nay,  that  they  will  soon  be  very  glad 
to  bury  the  wedge  "  where  the  tide  ebbs  and  flows  four 
times  a  day."  I  do  not  expect  this  of  their  courage, 
but  of  their  fears ;  not  of  their  justice  —  I  am  too  old 
for  that  —  but  of  their  concern  for  property,  which 
it  is  the  "  great  object  of  government  "  to  protect. 

I  know  how  some  men  talk  in  public,  and  how  they 
act  at  home.  I  heard  a  man  the  other  day,  at  Faneuil 
Hall,  declare  the  law  must  be  kept,  and  denounce,  not 
very  gently,  all  who  preached  or  prayed  against  it, 
as  enemies  of  "  all  law."  But  that  was  all  talk,  for 
this  very  man,  on  that  very  day,  had  violated  the  law ; 
had  furnished  the  golden  wheels  on  which  fugitives  rode 
out  of  the  reach  of  the  arms  which  the  marshal  would 
have  been  sorry  to  lift.  I  could  tell  things  more  sur 
prising  —  but  it  is  not  wise  just  now ! 

I  do  not  believe  there  is  more  than  one  of  the  New 
England  men  who  publicly  helped  the  law  into  being, 
but  would  violate  its  provisions ;  conceal  a  fugitive ; 
share  his  loaf  with  a  runaway ;  furnish  him  golden 
wings  to  fly  with.  Nay,  I  think  it  would  be  difficult 
to  find  a  magistrate  in  New  England,  willing  to  take 
the  public  odium  of  doing  the  official  duty.*  I  be 
lieve  it  is  not  possible  to  find  a  regular  jury,  who  will 

*  Subsequent  events  have  shown  the  folly  of  this  statement. 
Clergymen,  it  is  said,  are  wont  to  err,  by  overrating  the  moral 
principle  of  men.  (T.  P.,  1851.) 


STATE  OF  THE  NATION  123 

punish  a  man  for  harboring  a  slave,  for  helping  his 
escape,  or  fine  a  marslial  or  commissioner  for  being  a 
little  slow  to  catch  a  slave.*  Men  will  talk  loud  in 
public  meetings,  but  they  have  some  conscience  after 
all,  at  home.  And  though  they  howl  down  the  higher 
law  in  a  crowd,  yet  conscience  will  make  cowards  of 
them  all,  when  they  come  to  lay  hands  on  a  Christian 
man,  more  innocent  than  they,  and  send  him  into  slav 
ery  for  ever!  One  of  the  commissioners  of  Boston 
talked  loud  and  long,  last  Tuesday,  in  favor  of  keep 
ing  the  law.  When  he  read  his  litany  against  the  law 
of  God,  and  asked  if  men  would  keep  the  "  higher 
law,"  and  got  "  Never  "  as  the  welcome,  and  "  Amen  " 
for  response  —  it  seemed  as  if  the  law  might  be  kept, 
at  least  by  that  commissioner,  and  such  as  gave  the 
responses  to  his  creed.  But  slave-hunting  Mr. 
Hughes,  who  came  here  for  two  of  our  fellow-worship 
ers,!  in  his  Georgia  newspaper,  tells  a  different  story. 
Here  it  is,  from  the  Georgia  Telegraphy  of  last  Fri 
day.  "  I  called  at  eleven  o'clock  at  night,  at  his  [the 
commissioner's]  residence,  and  stated  to  him  my  busi 
ness,  and  asked  him  for  a  warrant,  saying  that  if  I 
could  get  a  warrant,  I  could  have  the  negroes  [William 
and  Ellen  Craft]  arrested.  He  said  the  law  did  not 
authorize  a  warrant  to  be  issued:  that  it  was  my  duty 
to  go  and  arrest  the  negro  without  a  warrant,  and 
bring  him  before  him !  " 

This  is  more  than  I  expected.  "  Is  Saul  among 
the  prophets  ?  "  The  men  who  tell  us  that  the  law 
must  be  kept,  God  willing,  or  against  His  will  - 

*  Recent  experiments  fortunately  confirm  this,  and,  spite  of 
all  the  unjust  efforts  to  pack  a  jury,  none  has  yet  been  found 
to  punish  a  man  for  such  a  "crime." 

t  Mr.  William  Craft,  and  Mrs.  Ellen  Craft. 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

there  are  Puritan  fathers  behind  them  also;  Bibles 
in  their  houses;  a  Christ  crucified,  whom  they  think 
of;  and  a  God  even  in  their  world,  who  slumbers  not, 
neither  is  weary,  and  is  as  little  a  respecter  of  parch 
ments  as  of  persons !  They  know  there  is  a  people, 
as  well  as  politicians,  a  posterity  not  yet  assembled, 
and  they  would  not  like  to  have  certain  words  writ  on 
their  tombstone.  "  Traitor  to  the  rights  of  mankind," 
is  no  pleasant  epitaph.  They,  too,  remember  there  is 
a  day  after  to-day ;  aye,  a  forever ;  and,  "  Inasmuch  as 
ye  have  not  done  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these  my 
brethren,  ye  have  not  done  it  unto  me,"  is  a  sentence 
they  would  not  like  to  hear  at  the  day  of  judg 
ment.* 

Much  danger  is  feared  from  the  "  political  agita 
tion  "  of  this  matter.  Great  principles  have  never  been 
discussed  without  great  passions,  and  will  not  be,  for 
some  time,  I  suppose.  But  men  fear  to  have  this  des 
potic  idea  become  a  subject  of  discussion.  Last 
spring,  Mr.  Webster  said  here  in  Boston,  "  We  shall 
not  see  the  legislation  of  the  country  proceed  in  the  old 
harmonious  way,  until  the  discussion  in  Congress  and 
out  of  Congress,  upon  the  subject  [of  slavery],  shall 
be  in  some  manner  suppressed.  Take  that  truth  home 
with  you ! "  We  have  lately  been  told  that  political 
agitation  on  the  subject  must  be  stopped.  So  it  seems 
this  law,  like  that  which  Daniel  would  not  keep,  is 
one  that  may  not  be  changed,  and  must  not  be 
talked  of. 

Now  there  are  three  modes  in  which  attempts  may 
be  made  to  stop  the  agitation. 

1.  By  sending 

*This  also  appears  to  have  been  a  mistake.  Still  I  let  the 
passage  stand. 


STATE  OF  THE  NATION  125 

" troops,  with  guns  and  banners, 

Cut  short  our  speeches  and  our  necks, 

And  break  our  heads  to  mend  our  manners." 

That  is  the  Austrian  way,  which  has  not  yet  been 
tried  here,  and  will  not  be. 

2.  By  sending  lecturers  throughout  the  land,  to  stir 
up  the  people  to  be  quiet,  and  agitate  them  till  they  are 
still ;  to  make  them  sign  the  pledge  of  total  abstinence 
from  the  discussion  of  this  subject.     That  is  not  likely 
to  effect  the  object. 

3.  For  the  friends  of  silence  to  keep  their  own  coun 
sel  —  and  this  seems  as  little  likely  to  be  tried,  as  the 
others  to  succeed. 

Strange  is  it  to  ask  us  to  forbear  to  talk  on  a  sub 
ject  which  involves  the  welfare  of  twenty  million  men! 
As  well  ask  a  man  in  a  fever  not  to  be  heated,  and 
a  consumptive  person  not  to  cough,  to  pine  away  and 
turn  pale.  Miserable  counselors  are  ye  all,  who  give 
such  advice !  But  we  have  seen  lately  the  lion  of  the 
Democrats,  and  the  lamb  of  the  Whigs,  lie  down  to 
gether,  joined  by  this  opinion,  so  gentle  and  so  loving, 
all  at  once,  that  a  little  child  could  lead  them,  and  so 
"  fulfil  the  sure  prophetic  word."  Yes,  we  have  seen 
the  Herod  of  one  party,  and  the  Pilate  of  the  other, 
made  friends  for  the  sake  of  crucifying  the  freedom 
of  mankind. 

But  there  is  one  way  in  which,  I  would  modestly 
hint,  that  we  might  stop  all  this  talk  "  in  Congress  and 
out  of  Congress ;  "  that  is,  to  "  discuss  "  the  matter  till 
we  had  got  at  the  truth,  and  the  whole  truth ;  then  to 
"  agitate  "  politically,  till  we  had  enacted  justice  into 
law,  and  carried  it  out  all  over  the  North,  and  all  over 
the  South.  After  that  there  would  be  no  more  dis 
cussion  about  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  than  about  the 


126  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

Boston  Port  Bill ;  no  more  agitation  about  American 
slavery,  than  there  is  about  the  condition  of  the  peo 
ple  of  Babylon  before  the  flood.  I  think  there  is  no 
other  way  in  which  we  are  likely  to  get  rid  of  this  dis 
cussion. 

Such  is  our  condition,  such  its  causes,  such  our 
dangers.  Now,  for  the  lesson,  look  a  moment  else 
where.  Look  at  continental  Europe,  at  Rome,  Aus 
tria,  Prussia,  and  the  German  States  —  at  France. 
How  uncertain  is  every  government !  France  —  the 
stablest  of  them  all !  Remember  the  revolution  which 
two  years  ago  shook  those  States  so  terribly,  when 
all  the  royalty  of  France  was  wheeled  out  of  Paris  in 
a  street  cab.  Why  are  those  States  so  tottering? 
Whence  those  revolutions?  They  tried  to  make  in 
iquity  their  law,  and  would  not  give  over  the  attempt ! 
Why  are  the  armies  of  France  five  hundred  thousand 
strong,  though  the  nation  is  at  peace  with  all  the 
world?  Because  they  tried  to  make  injustice  law! 
Why  do  the  Austrian  and  German  monarchs  fear  an 
earthquake  of  the  people?  Because  they  tread  the 
people  down  with  wicked  laws !  Whence  came  the 
crushing  debts  of  France,  Austria,  England?  From 
the  same  cause:  from  the  injustice  of  men  who  made 
mischief  by  law! 

It  is  not  for  men  long  to  hinder  the  march  of  hu 
man  freedom.  I  have  no  fear  for  that,  ultimately, — 
none  at  all,  simply  for  this  reason,  that  I  believe  in  the 
Infinite  God.  You  may  make  your  statutes;  an  ap 
peal  always  lies  to  the  higher  law,  and  decisions  ad 
verse  to  that  get  set  aside  in  the  ages.  Your  statutes 
cannot  hold  Him.  You  may  gather  all  the  dried  grass 
and  all  the  straw  in  both  continents ;  you  may  braid 
it  into  ropes  to  bind  down  the  sea ;  while  it  is  calm,  you 


STATE  OF  THE  NATION  127 

may  laugh,  and  say,  "  Lo,  I  have  chained  the  ocean ! " 
and  howl  down  the  law  of  Him  who  holds  the  universe 
as  a  rosebud  in  His  hand  —  its  every  ocean  but  a  drop 
of  dew.  "  How  the  waters  suppress  their  agitation," 
you  may  say.  But  when  the  winds  blow  their  trum 
pets,  the  sea  rises  in  its  strength,  snaps  asunder  the 
bonds  that  had  confined  his  mighty  limbs,  and  the 
world  is  littered  with  the  idle  hay !  Stop  the  human 
race  in  its  development  and  march  to  freedom?  As 
well  might  the  boys  of  Boston,  some  lustrous  night, 
mounting  the  steeples  of  this  town,  call  on  the  stars 
to  stay  their  course!  Gently,  but  irresistibly,  the 
Greater  and  the  Lesser  Bear  move  round  the  pole; 
Orion,  in  his  mighty  mail,  comes  up  the  sky ;  the  Bull, 
the  Ram,  the  Heavenly  Twins,  the  Crab,  the  Lion,  the 
Maid,  the  Scales,  and  all  that  shining  company,  pur 
sue  their  march  all  night,  and  the  new  day  discovers 
the  idle  urchins  in  their  lofty  places,  all  tired,  and 
sleepy,  and  ashamed. 

It  is  not  possible  to  suppress  the  idea  of  freedom, 
or  for  ever  hold  down  its  institutions.  But  it  is  pos 
sible  to  destroy  a  State ;  a  political  party  with  geo 
graphical  bounds  may  easily  be  rent  asunder.  It  is 
not  impossible  to  shiver  this  American  Union.  But 
how?  What  clove  asunder  the  great  British  party, 
one  nation  once  in  America  and  England?  Did  not 
our  fathers  love  their  fatherland?  Aye.  They  called 
it  home,  and  were  loyal  with  abundant  fealty;  there 
was  no  lack  of  piety  for  home.  It  was  the  attempt  to 
make  old  English  injustice  New  England  law!  Who 
did  it, —  the  British  people?  Never.  Their  hand  did 
no  such  sacrilege!  It  was  the  merchants  of  London, 
with  the  Navigation  Act;  the  politicians  of  West 
minster  with  the  Stamp  Act;  the  Tories  of  America, 


128  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

who  did  not  die  without  issue,  that  for  office  and  its 
gold  would  keep  a  king's  unjust  commands.  It  was 
they,  who  drove  our  fathers  into  disunion  against  their 
will.  Is  here  no  lesson?  We  love  law,  all  of  us  love 
it ;  but  a  true  man  loves  it  only  as  the  safeguard  of 
the  rights  of  man.  If  it  destroys  these  rights,  he 
spurns  it  with  his  feet.  Is  here  no  lesson?  Look 
further,  then. 

Do  you  know  how  empires  find  their  end?  Yes, 
the  great  States  eat  up  the  little.  As  with  fish,  so  with 
nations.  Aye,  but  how  do  the  great  States  come  to 
an  end?  By  their  own  injustice,  and  no  other  cause. 
They  would  make  unrighteousness  their  law,  and  God 
wills  not  that  it  be  so.  Thus  they  fall ;  thus  they  die. 
Look  at  these  ancient  States,  the  queenliest  queens  of 
earth.  There  is  Rome,  the  widow  of  two  civilizations, 
-  the  pagan  and  the  Catholic.  They  both  had  her,  and 
unto  both  she  bore  daughters  and  fair  sons.  But,  the 
Niobe  of  nations,  she  boasted  that  her  children  were 
holier  and  more  fair  than  all  the  pure  ideas  of  justice, 
truth,  and  love,  the  offspring  of  the  eternal  God.  And 
now  she  sits  there,  transformed  into  stone,  amid  the 
ruins  of  her  children's  bones.  At  midnight  I  have 
heard  the  owl  hoot  in  the  Coliseum  and  the  Forum, 
giving  voice  to  desolation ;  and  at  midday  I  have  seen 
the  fox  in  the  palace  where  Augustus  gathered  the 
wealth,  the  wit,  the  beauty,  and  the  wisdom  of  a  con 
quered  world;  and  the  fox  and  the  owl  interpreted  to 
me  the  voice  of  many  ages,  which  came  to  tell  this 
age,  that  though  hand  joined  in  hand,  the  wicked 
shall  not  prosper. 

Come  with  me,  my  friends,  a  moment  more,  pass 
over  this  Golgotha  of  human  history,  treading  rever 
ent  as  you  go,  for  our  feet  are  on  our  mothers'  grave, 


STATE  OF  THE  NATION  129 

and  our  shoes  defile  our  fathers'  hallowed  bones.  Let 
us  not  talk  of  them;  go  further  on,  look  and  pass  by. 
Come  with  me  into  the  Inferno  of  the  nations,  with 
such  poor  guidance  as  my  lamp  can  lend.  Let  us  dis 
quiet  and  bring  up  the  awful  shadows  of  empires 
buried  long  ago,  and  learn  a  lesson  from  the  tomb. 

Come,  old  Assyria,  with  the  Ninevitish  dove  upon 
thy  emerald  crown !  What  laid  thee  low  ?  "  I  fell 
by  own  injustice.  Thereby  Nineveh  and  Babylon 
came,  with  me,  also,  to  the  ground." 

Oh,  queenly  Persia,  flame  of  the  nations,  wherefore 
art  thou  so  fallen,  who  troddest  the  people  under  thee, 
bridgedst  the  Hellespont  with  ships,  and  pouredst  thy 
temple-wTasting  millions  on  the  western  world?  "  Be 
cause  I  trod  the  people  under  me,  and  bridged  the 
Hellespont  with  ships,  and  poured  my  temple-wast 
ing  millions  on  the  western  world.  I  fell  by  own  mis 
deeds." 

Thou  muse-like,  Grecian  queen,  fairest  of  all  thy 
classic  sisterhood  of  States,  enchanting  yet  the  world 
with  thy  sweet  witchery,  speaking  in  art,  and  most  se 
ductive  song;  why  liest  thou  there  with  beauteous  yet 
dishonored  brow,  reposing  on  thy  broken  harp?  "  I 
scorned  the  law  of  God ;  banished  and  poisoned  wisest, 
justest  men;  I  loved  the  loveliness  of  flesh,  embalmed 
it  in  the  Parian  stone ;  I  loved  the  loveliness  of  thought, 
and  treasured  that  in  more  than  Parian  speech.  But 
the  beauty  of  justice,  the  loveliness  of  love,  I  trod 
them  down  to  earth !  Lo,  therefore,  have  I  become  as 
those  Barbarian  States  —  as  one  of  them !  " 

Oh,  manly  and  majestic  Rome,  thy  sevenfold  mural 

crown,  all  broken  at  thy  feet,  why  art  thou  here?     It 

was  not  injustice  brought  thee  low ;  for  thy  great  book 

of  law  is  prefaced  with  these  words,  Justice  is  the  un- 

XIII— 9 


130  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

changing,  everlasting  will  to  give  each  man  his  right! 
"  It  was  not  the  saint's  ideal :  it  was  the  hypocrite's 
pretense !  I  made  iniquity  my  law.  I  trod  the  nations 
under  me.  Their  wealth  gilded  my  palaces, —  where 
thou  mayst  see  the  fox  and  hear  the  owl, —  it  fed  my 
courtiers  and  my  courtesans.  Wicked  men  were  my 
cabinet-counselors,  the  flatterer  breathed  his  poison 
in  my  ear.  Millions  of  bondmen  wet  the  soil  with 
tears  and  blood.  Do  you  not  hear  it  crying  yet  to 
God?  Lo,  here  have  I  my  recompense,  tormented  with 
such  downfall  as  you  see !  Go  back  and  tell  the  new 
born  child,  who  sitteth  on  the  Alleghanies,  laying  his 
either  hand  upon  a  tributary  sea,  a  crown  of  thirty 
stars  about  his  youthful  brow  —  tell  him  that  there 
are  rights  which  States  must  keep,  or  they  shall  suffer 
wrongs !  Tell  him  there  is  a  God  who  keeps  the  black 
man  and  the  white,  and  hurls  to  earth  the  loftiest 
realm  that  breaks  His  just,  eternal  law!  Warn  the 
young  Empire  that  he  come  not  down  dim  and  dis 
honored  to  my  shameful  tomb!  Tell  him  that  jus 
tice  is  the  unchanging,  everlasting  will  to  give  each 
man  his  right.  I  knew  it,  broke  it,  and  am  lost.  Bid 
him  to  know  it,  keep  it,  and  be  safe !  " 

"  God  save  the  Commonwealth !  "  proclaims  the  gov 
ernor.  God  will  do  His  part, —  doubt  not  of  that. 
But  you  and  I  must  help  Him  save  the  State.  What 
can  we  do?  Next  Sunday  I  will  ask  you  for  your 
charity ;  to-day  I  ask  a  greater  gift,  more  than  the 
abundance  of  the  rich,  or  the  poor  widow's  long-re 
membered  mite.  I  ask  you  for  your  justice.  Give 
that  to  your  native  land.  Do  you  not  love  your  coun 
try?  I  know  you  do.  Here  are  our  homes  and  the 
graves  of  our  fathers ;  the  bones  of  our  mothers  are 
under  the  sod.  The  memory  of  past  deeds  is  fresh 


STATE  OF  THE  NATION  131 

with  us;  many  a  farmer's  and  mechanic's  son  inherits 
from  his  sires  some  cup  of  manna  gathered  in  the 
wilderness,  and  kept  in  memory  of  our  exodus ;  some 
stones  from  the  Jordan,  which  our  fathers  passed  over 
sorely  bested  and  hunted  after;  some  Aaron's  rod, 
green  and  blossoming  with  fragrant  memories  of  the 
day  of  small  things,  when  the  Lord  led  us  —  and  all 
these  attach  us  to  our  land,  our  native  land.  We  love 
the  great  ideas  of  the  North,  the  institutions  which 
they  founded,  the  righteous  laws,  the  schools,  the 
churches,  too  —  do  we  not  love  all  these?  Aye.  I 
know  well  you  do.  Then  by  all  these,  and  more  than 
all,  by  the  dear  love  of  God,  let  us  swear  that  we  will 
keep  the  justice  of  the  Eternal  Law.  Then  are  we 
all  safe.  We  know  not  what  a  day  may  bring  forth, 
but  we  know  that  eternity  will  bring  everlasting  peace. 
High  in  the  heavens,  the  pole-star  of  the  world,  shines 
justice ;  placed  within  us,  as  our  guide  thereto,  is  con 
science.  Let  us  be  faithful  to  that  — 

"Which  though  it  trembles  as  it  lowly  lies, 
Points  to  the  light  that  changes  not  in  heaven." 


IV 

THE  LIKE  AND  THE  DIFFERENT 

1851 

A  few  months  ago,  the  Right  Honorable  W.  E. 
Gladstone,  member  of  the  British  Parliament  for  Ox 
ford,  published  "  Two  Letters  to  the  Earl  of  Aberdeen 
on  the  State  Prosecutions  of  the  Neapolitan  Govern 
ment."  Mr.  Gladstone  appears  to  be  one  of  the  most 
conservative  Commoners  in  England;  and  he  writes 
to  one  of  the  most  conservative  of  the  Lords.  The 
letters  have  filled  England  with  amazement.  The  work 
was  published  last  July,  and  it  is  now  the  twenty- 
fourth  of  October  while  I  write ;  but  ten  editions  have 
already  been  exhausted  in  England,  and  the  eleventh 
has  had  time  to  travel  three  thousand  miles,  and  find 
its  way  to  my  desk. 

Mr.  Gladstone  makes  some  disclosures  which  have 
astonished  the  simplicity  of  Father  England.  He  ac 
cuses  the  government  of  Naples,  in  its  treatment  of 
those  accused  of  political  offenses,  of  "  an  outrage 
upon  religion,  upon  civilization,  upon  humanity,  and 
upon  decency."  What  is  more,  he  abundantly  sub 
stantiates  his  accusation  by  details  so  horrible,  that  he 
thinks  they  will  not  be  credited  by  his  countrymen ;  for 
the  actual  wickedness  of  the  Neapolitan  Government 
surpasses  all  that  Englishmen  had  thought  it  possible 
for  malice  to  invent  or  tyranny  to  inflict. 

He  says :  "  It  is  not  mere  imperfection,  not  ambi 
tion  in  low  quarters,  not  occasional  severity,  that  I  am 
about  to  describe;  it  is  an  incessant,  systematic,  delib 
erate  violation  of  the  law  by  the  power  appointed  to 

132 


LIKE  AND  DIFFERENT  133 

watch  over  and  maintain  it.  It  is  such  violation  of 
human  and  written  law  as  this,  carried  on  for  the  pur 
pose  of  violating  every  other  law,  unwritten  and  eter 
nal,  human  or  divine."  "  It  is  the  awful  profanation 
of  public  religion,  by  its  notorious  alliance,  in  the 
governing  powers,  with  the  violation  of  every  moral 
law,  under  the  stimulant  of  fear  and  vengeance." 
"  The  effect  of  all  this  is  total  inversion  of  all  the 
moral  and  social  ideas.  Law,  instead  of  being  re 
spected,  is  odious.  Force,  and  not  affection,  is  the 
foundation  of  government.  The  governing  power  is 
clothed  with  all  the  vices  for  its  attributes." 

Mr.  Gladstone  thinks  there  are  not  less  than  twenty 
thousand  prisoners  for  political  offenses,  locked  up 
in  jail;  between  four  and  five  hundred  were  to  be 
tried  for  their  lives  on  the  15th  of  May.  Of  one 
hundred  and  forty  deputies  who  formed  the  Legis 
lative  Assembly  in  1849,  seventy-six  had  been  arrested, 
or  had  fled  into  exile.  The  law  of  Naples  requires 
that  u  personal  liberty  shall  be  inviolable,  except  un 
der  a  warrant  from  a  court  of  justice,  authorized  for 
the  purpose."  But  in  defiance  of  this  law,  "  the  gov 
ernment  watches  and  dogs  the  people ;  pays  domiciliary 
visits  very  unceremoniously  at  night ;  ransacks  houses ; 
seizes  papers ;  imprisons  men  by  the  score  —  by  the 
hundred  —  by  the  thousand  —  without  any  warrant 
whatever,  sometimes  without  any  written  authority 
at  all,  or  anything  beyond  the  word  of  a  policeman." 

After  the  illegal  arrest,  the  trial  is  long  delayed, — 
sometimes  more  than  two  years.  "  Every  effort  is 
made  to  concoct  a  charge,  by  the  perversion  and  par 
tial  production  of  real  evidence ;  and,  this  failing,  the 
resort  is  to  perjury  and  forgery.  The  miserable  crea 
tures,  to  be  found  in  most  communities,  who  are 


134-  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

ready  to  sell  the  liberty  and  life  of  fellow-subjects 
for  gain,  and  throw  their  own  souls  into  the  bargain, 
are  deliberately  employed  by  the  executive  power  to 
depose,  according  to  their  instructions,  against  the 
men  whom  it  is  thought  desirable  to  ruin."  If  the 
defendant  has  counter-evidence,  he  is  not  allowed  to 
produce  it  in  court. 

Here  are  matters  of  fact  of  a  more  particular  na 
ture.  The  filth  of  the  prisons  is  beastly.  The  doc 
tors  never  visit  the  prisoners.  Three  or  four  hundred 
prisoners  "  all  slept  in  a  long,  low,  vaulted  room, 
having  no  light  except  from  a  single  and  very  moder 
ate-sized  grating  at  one  end."  From  December  7th, 
1850,  to  February  3rd,  1851,  Signer  Pironte,  a  gen 
tleman  who  had  been  a  judge,  was  shut  up  in  a  cell 
"  about  eight  feet  square,  below  the  level  of  the 
ground,  with  no  light  except  a  grating  at  the  top 
of  the  wall,  out  of  which  he  could  not  see."  This  was 
in  the  city  of  Naples. 

Signer  Carlo  Poerio,  formerly  a  minister  of  the 
Court,  was  illegally  arrested,  thrown  into  jail,  and 
kept  for  seven  or  eight  months  in  total  ignorance  of 
the  offense  charged  against  him.  At  length  he  was 
accused  of  belonging  to  a  party  which  did  not  ex 
ist.  He  was  tried  by  a  special  court.  The  only  evi 
dence  against  him  was  that  of  a  hired  and  worthless 
informer  of  the  government ;  even  that  was  incon 
sistent,  contradictory,  and  of  no  value.  Of  course, 
Signor  Poerio  was  found  guilty.  He  was  sentenced 
to  twenty-four  years  imprisonment  in  irons.  He  and 
sixteen  others  were  confined  in  the  Bagno  of  Niseda, 
in  a  cell  about  thirteen  feet  by  ten,  and  ten  feet  high. 
When  the  beds  were  let  down  for  these  seventeen  men, 
there  was  no  space  between  them.  The  prisoners  were 


LIKE  AND  DIFFERENT  135 

chained  in  pairs,  with  irons  that  weigh  about  thirty- 
three  pounds  to  each  man.  The  chains  are  never 
taken  off.  The  food  is  bread,  and  a  soup  so  nauseous 
that  only  famine  can  force  it  down  the  throat. 

To  justify  itself,  the  government  has  published 
a  "  Philosophical  Catechism  for  the  Use  of  Schools," 
which  teaches  the  theory  which  the  authorities  prac 
tise.  It  declares  that  the  prince  is  not  bound  to  keep 
the  constitution  when  it  "  impugns  the  right  of  sov 
ereignty  "  of  himself.  "  Whenever  the  people  may 
have  proposed  a  condition  which  impairs  the  sover 
eignty  [the  arbitrary  power  of  the  king],  and  when 
the  prince  may  have  promised  to  observe  it,  that  pro 
posal  is  an  absurdity,  that  promise  is  null."  "  It 
is  the  business  of  the  sovereign  "  "  to  decide  when  the 
promise  is  null."  This  catechism,  which  seeks  to  jus 
tify  the  perjury  of  a  monarch,  and  announces  the 
theory  of  crime,  is  published  by  authority,  and  in  the 
name  of  "  the  Most  Holy  and  Almighty  God,  the 
Trinity  in  Unity." 

The  disclosures  in  Mr.  Gladstone's  letters  filled  Eng 
land  with  horror.  Even  Naples  fears  the  public  opin 
ion  of  Europe,  and  the  Neapolitan  Government  became 
alarmed.  Some  attempts  have  been  made  by  its  offi 
cials,  to  deny  the  facts.  The  British  thought  them 
too  bad  to  be  true.  Yet  the  government  of  Naples  is 
not  wholly  inaccessible  to  mercy.  For  Mr.  Morris, 
the  American  minister  at  Naples,  becoming  interested 
in  a  young  man,  Signer  Domenico  Nostromarina,  con 
fined  in  the  island  of  Capri  for  some  alleged  political 
offense,  asked  his  pardon  of  the  king,  and  it  was 
granted. 

The  American  Declaration  of  Independence  an 
nounces  as  self-evident,  that  all  men  are  created 


186  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

equal,  and  with  certain  inalienable  rights,  and  amongst 
them  the  right  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  hap 
piness  ;  and  the  design  of  government  is  to  secure  those 
rights.  The  Constitution  of  Massachusetts  provides 
that  "  every  person  has  a  right  to  be  secure  from  all 
unreasonable  searches  and  seizures  of  his  person,"  and 
"  all  warrants  therefore  are  contrary  to  this  right, 
if  the  cause  or  foundation  of  them  be  not  previously 
supported  by  oath  or  affirmation."  But,  in  Septem 
ber,  1851,  more  than  fifty  persons  were  seized  by  the 
creatures  of  the  city  government  of  Boston,  with  no 
warrant,  not  for  the  purpose  of  a  trial,  and  were 
publicly  exhibited,  by  the  marshal  of  the  city,  to  the 
mob  who  came  to  stare  at  them. 

In  April,  1851,  an  officer  in  the  pay  of  the  city  of 
Boston,  with  no  warrant,  seized  Thomas  Sims,  then 
an  inhabitant  of  that  city,  on  a  false  pretense,  by 
night,  and  brought  him  before  a  subaltern  officer 
of  the  general  government  of  the  United  States.  He 
was  confined  in  a  court-house  belonging  to  one  of 
the  counties  of  Massachusetts,  which  was,  for  the 
time,  converted  into  a  jail  for  his  detention,  contrary 
to  the  law  of  the  State.  Officers  acting  under  the 
laws  of  Massachusetts,  and  subject  to  its  penalties, 
aided  in  kidnapping  and  detaining  this  unfortunate 
man,  though  the  law  of  Massachusetts  forbids  such 
conduct  on  their  part. 

At  the  request  of  Mr.  Sims,  I  visited  him  in  his 
place  of  confinement,  where  he  was  guarded  by  about 
a  dozen  men  who  were  in  the  same  room  with  him. 
One  of  them  had  a  drawn  sword  in  his  hand. 

After  what  was  called  a  trial,  before  a  single  man, 
and  he  a  creature  of  the  government,  who  was  to  be 
paid  twice  as  much  for  deciding  against  his  prisoner 


LIKE  AND  DIFFERENT  137 

as  for  him,  a  trial  conducted  without  "  due  form  of 
law,"  Mr.  Sims  was  sentenced  to  bondage  for  his 
natural  life.  Yet  he  was  accused  of  no  offense,  ex 
cept  that  of  escaping  from  those  who  had  stolen  him 
from  himself,  and  claimed  his  labor  and  his  limbs  as 
theirs.  When  he  was  to  be  carried  off,  and  deliv 
ered  to  his  tormentors,  fifteen  hundred  citizens  of  Bos 
ton  volunteered  to  conduct  the  victim  of  illegal  tyr 
anny  out  of  the  State,  and  deliver  him  up  to  the  men 
who  had  taken  him  at  first.  A  brigade  of  soldiers, 
since  called  "  The  Sims  Brigade,"  was  called  out 
at  the  expense  of  the  city,  and  by  direction  of  its 
magistrates,  and  kept  under  arms  day  and  night,  to 
aid  in  violating  the  laws  of  Massachusetts,  and  pro 
faning  the  laws  of  God.  Their  headquarters  were 
in  what  was  once  called  the  "  Cradle  of  Liberty,"  in 
Faneuil  Hall. 

The  court-house  was  surrounded  by  chains  for  sev 
eral  days,  and  guarded  by  mercenaries  of  the  city, 
hired  for  the  purpose,  and  armed  with  bludgeons.  I 
counted  forty-four  of  these  men  on  guard  at  the  same 
time.  They  molested  and  turned  back  men  who  had 
business  in  the  court-house,  but  admitted  any  "  gen 
tleman  from  the  South."  The  judges  of  the  State 
courts  stooped  and  crouched  down,  and  crawled  un 
der  the  chain,  to  go,  emblematically,  to  their  places. 

A  portion  of  the  city  police,  armed  with  swords, 
was  drilled  one  day  in  a  public  square,  and  the  move 
ments  of  the  awkward  squad  were  a  little  ridiculous  to 
such  as  had  never  seen  British  clowns  under  a  drill 
sergeant.  One  of  the  by-standers  laughed,  and  the 
chief  police  officer  on  the  station  threatened  to  lock 
him  up  in  a  jail  if  he  laughed  again. 

The  mayor  of  the  city  rose,  soberly,  and  with  two 


138  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

or  three  hundred  of  the  police  of  the  city,  armed 
with  bludgeons  and  swords,  in  the  darkest  hour  of  the 
night,  took  their  victim,  weeping,  out  of  his  jail. 
Some  benevolent  men  furnished  him  with  clothes  for 
his  voyage.  He  was  then  conducted  by  this  crew 
of  kidnappers  through  the  principal  street  of  the  city 
to  a  vessel  waiting  to  receive  him.  As  he  went  aboard, 
he  burst  into  tears,  and  exclaimed,  "  This  is  Massa 
chusetts  liberty !  "  Several  of  the  inhabitants  of  the 
city  attended  their  victim  to  Savannah,  in  Georgia, 
whence  he  had  fled  away.  There  they  were  honored 
with  a  public  entertainment  given  by  the  citizens  of 
that  place. 

Their  victim  was  conducted  to  jail,  and  severely 
flogged.  He  was  not  allowed  to  see  his  mother,  or 
any  other  relative.  It  was  afterwards  related  that 
his  master,  still  keeping  him  in  jail,  ordered  him  to 
be  tortured  every  day  with  a  certain  number  of  lashes 
on  his  bare  back,  but  once  offered  to  remit  a  part 
of  the  torture  on  condition  that  he  should  ask  par 
don  for  running  away :  he  refused,  and  took  the 
blows.  But  one  day,  the  jail-doctor,  finding  the  man 
feeble  and  daily  failing,  told  the  master  his  slave  was 
too  unwell  to  bear  that  torture.  The  master  said, 
"  Damn  him,  give  him  the  lashes  if  he  dies ! "  and 
the  lashes  fell. 

Mr.  Sims  was  a  smart,  dashing  young  fellow,  of 
some  one  or  two  and  twenty  years.  He  had  a  wife 
at  Savannah  (handsome,  and  nearly  white),  not  be 
longing  to  his  master,  it  is  said.  After  his  escape  to 
Boston,  he  informed  her  of  his  hiding-place.  She 
was  the  concubine  of  a  white  man,  and  told  him  her 
husband's  secret.  He  informed  the  master,  and  at 
his  direction,  with  some  witnesses  hired  for  the  pur- 


LIKE  AND  DIFFERENT  139 

pose,  came  to  Boston  in  search  of  the  runaway.  By 
the  illegal  measures  of  the  city  government  of  Boston, 
the  slave-hunter  secured  his  object  and  returned  home. 
In  Boston,  a  dealer  in  goods  for  the  Southern  mar 
ket,  a  rich  man,  entertained  the  slave-hunter  and  his 
crew  while  there,  took  them  to  ride  in  a  coach,  and 
gave  them  a  costly  supper  at  one  of  the  principal 
hotels  in  the  city. 

The  last  legal  effort  to  save  the  man  from  the  terri 
ble  punishment  which  the  Bostonians  were  desirous  of 
inflicting  upon  him,  was  made  by  a  distinguished 
citizen  of  this  State,  before  the  circuit  judge.  I  shall 
not  now  tell  all  I  know  about  the  matter  here ;  but 
when  the  judge  decided  against  his  victim,  and  thus 
cut  off  his  last  hope,  the  sentence  was  received  by  the 
rich  and  mercantile  audience  that  crowded  the  court 
house  with  applause  and  the  clapping  of  hands. 
Leading  citizens  of  Boston  rejoiced  at  the  transaction 
and  its  result.  Some  of  them  publicly  mocked  at  all 
efforts  made  in  behalf  of  the  unfortunate  man  who 
had  been  kidnapped.  The  commercial  and  political 
newspapers  of  the  city  gave  expression  to  the  com 
mon  joy,  that  an  inhabitant  of  Boston  had,  for  the 
first  time  for  many  years,  and  at  the  expense  of  the 
city,  been  doomed  to  eternal  bondage  by  the  author 
ities  of  the  place.  It  was  thought  trade  would  im 
prove  ;  and  it  is  now  stated  that  Boston  has  had  more 
Southern  "  patronage  "  since  the  kidnapping  of  Sims, 
than  in  any  previous  six  months  since  the  adoption 
of  the  Constitution. 

The  leading  clergy  of  the  town  were  also  deeply  de 
lighted  at  the  success  of  this  kidnapping;  several  of 
them,  in  their  pulpit  services,  expressed  their  appro 
bation  of  the  deed,  and  gave  God  thanks,  in  their 


140  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

public  prayers,  that  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  had  been 
executed  in  Boston.  One  of  them,  the  most  promi 
nent  clergyman  in  the  city,  declared,  in  private,  that 
if  a  fugitive  should  seek  shelter  of  him,  "  I  would 
drive  him  away  from  my  own  door."  Another  had 
previously  declared,  in  public,  that  he  would  send  his 
own  mother  into  slavery  to  keep  the  law.  At  a  sub 
sequent  period,  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
in  his  visit  to  Boston,  congratulated  the  authorities 
of  the  State  on  this  execution  of  his  law. 

The  laws  of  Massachusetts  are  flagrantly  violated 
in  Boston ;  especially  the  usury  laws  and  the  license 
law.  At  this  moment  there  are,  probably,  at  least 
a  thousand  places  in  the  city  where  liquor  is  publicly 
sold  in  violation  of  the  law.  It  is  notorious  that  even 
the  banks  daily  violate  the  usury  law.  These  are 
matters  of  continual  occurrence.  But,  last  spring, 
a  citizen  of  Boston  was  assassinated,  in  broad  day 
light,  in  Haymarket  Square.  The  assassin  was  well 
known,  but  he  has  not  been  arrested.  The  city  gov 
ernment  has,  as  yet,  offered  no  public  reward  for  his 
apprehension.  It  is  rumored  that  the  man  was  mur 
dered  by  one  whom  he  had  complained  of  for  vio 
lating  the  license  law. 

The  Fugitive  Slave  Law  drove  into  exile  about  four 
or  five  hundred  inhabitants  of  Boston  in  less  than  a 
year.  They  had  committed  no  crime,  except  to  be 
lieve  themselves  the  owners  of  their  own  bodies,  and 
act  on  that  belief.  Several  Unitarian  clergymen  have 
been  driven  from  their  parishes  in  consequence  of  op 
posing  that  law.  It  has  been  proclaimed  by  the  most 
eminent  politicians  of  the  nation,  that  there  is  no  law 
higher  than  the  statutes  of  Congress.  Prominent 
clergymen  assent  to  the  doctrine.  Thus  the  negation 


LIKE  AND  DIFFERENT  141 

of  God  is  made  the  first  principle  of  politics.  In  a 
certain  town,  in  Massachusetts,  the  names  of  all  anti- 
slavery  men  are  rejected  from  the  list  of  jurors.  Some 
of  the  leading  commercial  newspapers  of  Boston  ad 
vise  men  not  to  employ  such  as  are  opposed  to  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law. 

Many  clergymen  declare  that  slavery  is  a  Christian 
institution ;  some  of  great  eminence, —  as  men  esti 
mate  clerical  eminence, —  have  undertaken  to  support 
and  justify  it  out  of  the  Bible.  Several  wealthy  citi 
zens  of  Boston  are  known  to  own  slaves  at  this  mo 
ment  ;  they  buy  them  and  sell  them.  There  is  one  who 
has  made  a  large  fortune  by  selling  rum  on  the  coast 
of  Africa,  and  thence  carrying  slaves  to  America.  In 
Boston  it  is  respectable  to  buy  and  sell  men, —  the 
slave-hunter,  the  kidnapper,  is  an  "  honorable  man,"  — 
even  the  defender  of  kidnapping  and  slave-hunting  is 
respected  and  beloved,  while  the  philanthropist,  who 
liberates  bondmen,  is  held  in  abhorrence.  The  blacks 
are  driven  from  the  public  schools  by  a  law  of  the 
city.  There  is  a  church  in  which  colored  men  are  not 
allowed  to  buy  a  pew.  They  are  not  permitted  to 
enter  the  schools  of  theology  or  of  medicine.  They 
are  shut  out  from  our  colleges.  In  some  places  they 
are  not  allowed  to  be  buried  with  white  men.  An 
Episcopal  church,  in  New  York,  holds  a  cemetery  on 
this  condition,  that  "  they  shall  not  suffer  any  colored 
person  to  be  buried  in  any  part  of  the  same."  A 
Presbyterian  church  advertised  that  in  its  grave-yard, 
"  neither  negroes  nor  executed  felons  "  should  ever  be 
buried  there.  No  sect  opposes  slavery ;  no  prominent 
sectarian.  The  popular  religion  of  New  England 
teaches  that  it  is  Christian  to  buy  slaves,  sell  slaves, 
and  make  slaves.  "  Slavery,  as  it  exists,  at  the  pres- 


143  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

ent  day,"  says  an  eminent  divine,  "  is  agreeable  to  the 
order  of  Divine  Providence." 

One  of  the  newspapers  in  Boston,  on  the  10th  of 
October,  1851,  speaking  of  the  abolitionists  and  lib 
erty  party  men,  says :  "  Such  traitors  should  every 
one  be  garroted "  —  strangled  to  death.  Another, 
of  the  same  date,  says  that  Mr.  Webster's  "  wonderful 
labors  in  behalf  of  the  Constitution  "  "  have  vindi 
cated  his  claim  to  the  highest  title  yet  bestowed  upon 
man."  The  Church  and  the  State  alike  teach  that 
though  the  law  of  God  may  be  binding  on  him,  it  is 
of  no  validity  before  an  Act  of  Congress. 

America  is  a  republic;  and  Millard  Fillmore  is  by 
accident  President  of  the  United  States.  Naples  is  a 
monarchy ;  and  Ferdinand  is  "  by  the  grace  of  God  " 
King.  Such  is  the  different ;  reader,  behold  the  like ! 


THE  FUGITIVE  SLAVE  LAW  * 
1851 

The  subject  of  debate  was  "The  Duty  of  Min 
isters  under  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law."  This  had 
been  brought  up,  by  Rev.  Mr.  May  of  Syracuse,  at  a 
business  meeting  of  the  American  Unitarian  Asso 
ciation,  and  was  refused  a  hearing.  It  was  again 
brought  forward  at  the  meeting  of  the  Ministerial 
Conference  on  Wednesday.  The  Conference  ad 
journed  to  Thursday  morning,  at  nine  o'clock. 

On  Tuesday  and  Wednesday  afternoons,  a  good  deal 
was  done  to  prevent  the  matter  from  being  discussed 
at  all ;  and  done,  as  it  seemed  to  me,  in  a  disingenuous 
and  unfair  manner.  And  on  Thursday  morning  much 
time  was  consumed  in  mere  trifles,  apparently  with  the 
intention  of  wearing  away  the  few  hours  which  would 
otherwise  be  occupied  in  discussing  the  matter  at  is 
sue,  before  the  Conference.  At  length  the  question 
was  reached,  and  the  debate  began. 

Several  persons  spoke.  Mr.  Pierpont  made  a 
speech,  able  and  characteristic,  in  which  he  declared 
that  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  lacked  all  the  essentials 
of  a  law ;  that  it  had  no  claim  to  obedience ;  and  that 
it  could  not  be  administered  with  a  pure  heart  or  un 
sullied  ermine. 

Several  others  made  addresses.  Rev.  Mr.  Osgood 
of  New  York  defended  his  ministerial  predecessor,  Rev. 
Dr.  Dewey  —  making  two  points. 

1.  Dr.  Dewey 's  conduct  had  been  misrepresented; 
he  had  never  said  that  he  would  send  his  own  mother 
*  Speech  delivered  at  a  Ministerial  Conference  in  Boston. 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

into  slavery  to  preserve  the  Union ;  it  was  only  his  son, 
or  brother.  [Mr.  Parker  remarked  that  the  principle 
was  the  same  in  all  three  cases,  there  was  only  a  di 
versity  of  measure.] 

2.  Dr.  Dewey's  motives  had  been  misrepresented. 
He  had  conversed  with  Dr.  Dewey ;  and  Dr.  Dewey 
felt  very  bad ;  was  much  afflicted  —  even  to  weeping, 
at  the  misrepresentations  made  of  him.  He  had  not 
been  understood.  Dr.  Dewey  met  Dr.  Furness  in  the 
street,  [Dr.  Furness  had  most  manfully  preached 
against  the  Fugitive  Slave  Act,  and  thereby  drawn 
upon  himself  much  odium  in  Philadelphia,  and  the  in 
dignation  of  some  of  his  clerical  brethren  elsewhere,] 
and  said,  "  Brother  Furness  —  you  have  taken  the  easy 
road  to  duty.  It  is  for  me  to  take  the  hard  and  dif 
ficult  way !  I  wish  it  could  be  otherwise.  But  I 
feared  the  dissolution  of  the  Union !  "  etc.,  etc. 

Mr.  Osgood  then  proceeded  to  censure  "  one  of  this 
Conference  "  [Mr.  Parker]  for  the  manner  in  which 
he  had  preached  on  this  matter  of  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Law.  "  It  was  very  bad;  it  was  unjust!  "  etc. 

Rev.  Dr.  Gannett  spoke  at  some  length. 

1.  He  said   the  brethren   had  laughed,   and   shown 
an  indecorum  that  wras  painful ;  it  was  unpardonable. 
[The  chairman,  Rev.  Dr.  Farley,  of  Brooklyn,  N.  Y., 
thought  otherwise.] 

2.  He  criticized  severely  the  statement  of  Rev.  Mr. 
Pierpont  that  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  "  could  not  be 
administered  with  a  pure  heart  or  unsullied  ermine." 
[Mr.  Pierpont  affirmed  it  anew,  and  briefly  defended 
the    statement.     Mr.    Gannett   still   appeared    dissatis 
fied.]      His  parishioner,  Mr.  George  T.  Curtis,  had  the 
most  honorable  motives  for  attempting  to  execute  the 
law. 


THE  FUGITIVE  SLAVE  LAW  145 

3.  He  (Dr.   Gannett)   was  in  a  minority,  and  the 
majority  had  no  right  to  think  that  he  was  not  as  hon 
est  in  his  opinion  as  the  rest. 

4.  Here  Dr.  Gannett  made  two  points  in  defense  of 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  of  making  and  obeying  it. 

(1.)  If  we  did  not  obey  it  the  disobedience  would 
lead  to  the  violation  of  all  law.  There  were  two  things 
-  law  without  liberty ;  and  liberty  without  law.  Law 
without  liberty  was  only  despotism;  liberty  without 
law  only  license.  Law  without  liberty  was  the  better  of 
the  two.  If  we  began  by  disobeying  any  one  law,  we 
should  come  to  violating  all  laws. 

(2)  We  must  obey  it  to  preserve  the  Union:  witb- 
out  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  the  Union  would  have 
been  dissolved;  if  it  were  not  obeyed  it  would  also  be 
dissolved,  and  then  he  did  not  know  what  would  be 
come  of  the  cause  of  human  freedom  and  human  rights. 

Then  Rev.  George  E.  Ellis  of  Charlestown  spoke. 
He  would  not  have  the  Conference  pass  any  resolu 
tions  ;  he  stood  on  the  first  principles  of  Congregation 
alism  —  that  the  minister  was  not  responsible  to  his 
brothers,  but  to  himself  and  his  God.  So  the  breth 
ren  have  no  right  to  come  here  and  discuss  and  con 
demn  the  opinions  or  the  conduct  of  a  fellow-minister. 
We  cannot  bind  one  another ;  we  have  no  right  to  criti 
cize  and  condemn. 

Next  he  declared  his  hatred  of  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Bill.  If  we  must  either  keep  it  or  lose  the  Union, 
he  said,  "  Perish  the  Uhion."  He  had  always  said 
so,  and  preached  so. 

After  Mr.  Ellis,  Mr.  Parker  spoke  as  follows: 

MR.  CHAIRMAN  AND  GENTLEMEN  —  I  am  one  of 
those  that  laughed  with  the  rest,  and  incurred  the  dis 
pleasure  of  Dr.  Gannett.  It  was  not  from  lightness, 
XIII— 10 


146  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

however ;  I  think  no  one  will  accuse  me  of  that.  I  am 
earnest  enough;  so  much  so  as  to  be  grim.  Still  it  is 
natural  even  for  a  grim  man  to  laugh  sometimes ;  and 
in  times  like  these  I  am  glad  we  can  laugh. 

I  am  glad  my  friend,  Mr.  Ellis,  said  the  brethren 
had  no  right  here  to  criticize  and  condemn  the  opin 
ions  of  one  of  their  members ;  but  I  wish  he  and  they 
had  come  to  this  opinion  ten  years  ago.  I  should 
have  been  a  gainer  by  it ;  for  this  is  the  first  time  for 
nine  years  that  I  have  attended  this  Conference  with 
out  hearing  something  which  seemed  said  with  the  in 
tention  of  insulting  me.  I  will  not  say  I  should  have 
been  in  general  a  happier  man  if  Mr.  Ellis's  advice 
had  been  followed;  nay,  if  he  had  always  followed  it 
himself;  but  I  should  have  sat  with  a  little  more  com 
fort  in  this  body  if  they  had  thought  I  was  not  respon 
sible  to  them  for  my  opinions. 

I  am  glad  also  to  hear  Dr.  Gannett  say  we  have  no 
right  to  attribute  improper  motives  to  any  one  who 
differs  from  us  in  opinion.  It  was  rather  gratuitous, 
however;  no  man  has  done  it  here  to-day.  But  it  is 
true,  no  man  has  a  right  thus  to  "judge  another." 
But  I  will  remind  Dr.  Gannett  that,  a  few  years  ago, 
he  and  I  differed  in  opinion  on  a  certain  matter  of 
considerable  importance,  and  after  clearly  expressing 
our  difference,  I  said,  "  Well,  there  is  an  honest  dif 
ference  of  opinion  between  us,"  and  he  said,  "  Not  an 
honest  difference  of  opinion,  Brother  Parker,"  for  he 
called  me  "  brother "  then,  and  not  "  Mr."  as  since, 
and  now,  when  he  has  publicly  said  he  cannot  take  my 
hand  fraternally.  Still  there  was  an  honest  difference 
of  opinion  on  his  part  as  well  as  mine. 

Mr.  Osgood  apologizes  for  Dr.  Dewey ;  —  that  is, 
he  defends  his  motives.  I  am  glad  he  does  not  under- 


THE  FUGITIVE  SLAVE  LAW  1*7 

take  to  defend  his  conduct,  only  to  deny  that  he  [Dr. 
Dewey]  uttered  the  words  alleged.  But  I  am  sorry 
to  say  that  I  cannot  agree  with  Mr.  Osgood  in  his 
defense.  I  do  not  believe  a  word  of  it  to  be  true: 
I  have  evidence  enough  that  he  said  so. 

Mr.  Gannett  in  demanding  obedience  to  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Law  made  two  points,  namely ;  if  it  be  not 
obeyed,  first,  we  shall  violate  all  human  laws ;  and  next, 
there  will  be  a  dissolution  of  the  Union. 

Let  me  say  a  word  of  each.  But  first  let  me  say 
that  I  attribute  no  unmanly  motive  to  Mr.  Gannett. 
I  thought  him  honest  when  he  denied  that  I  was ;  I 
think  him  honest  now.  I  know  him  to  be  conscien 
tious,  laborious,  and  self-denying.  I  think  he  would 
sacrifice  himself  for  another's  good.  I  wish  he  could 
now  sink  through  the  floor  for  two  or  three  minutes, 
that  I  might  say  of  him  absent  yet  more  of  honorable 
praise,  which  I  will  not  insult  him  with  or  address  to 
him  while  before  my  face.  Let  me  only  say  this,  that 
if  there  be  any  men  in  this  Conference  who  honor  and 
esteem  Dr.  Gannett,  I  trust  I  am  second  to  none  of 
them.  But  I  do  not  share  his  opinions  nor  partake 
-of  his  fears.  His  arguments  for  obeying  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Law  («6  inconvenienti)  I  think  are  of  no 
value. 

If  we  do  not  obey  this  law,  he  says,  we  shall  disobey 
all  laws.  It  is  not  so.  There  is  not  a  country  in  the 
world  where  there  is  more  respect  for  human  laws  than 
in  New  England ;  nowhere  more  than  in  Massachusetts. 
Even  if  a  law  is  unpopular,  it  is  not  popular  to  dis 
obey  it.  Our  courts  of  justice  are  popular  bodies, 
nowhere  are  judges  more  respected  than  in  New  Eng 
land.  No  officer,  constable  or  sheriff,  hangman  or 
jail-keeper,  is  unpopular  on  account  of  his  office.  Nay, 


148  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

it  is  popular  to  inform  against  your  neighbor  when  he 
violates  the  law  of  the  land.  This  is  not  so  in  any 
other  country  of  the  Christian  world;  but  the  in 
former  is  infamous  everywhere  else. 

Why  are  we  thus  loyal  to  law?  First,  because  we 
make  the  laws  ourselves,  and  for  ourselves ;  and  next, 
because  the  laws  actually  represent  the  conscience  of 
the  people,  and  help  them  keep  the  laws  of  God.  The 
value  of  human  laws  is  only  this  —  to  conserve  the 
great  eternal  law  of  God ;  to  enable  us  to  keep  that ; 
to  hinder  us  from  disobeying  that.  So  long  as  laws 
do  this  we  should  obey  them:  New  England  will  be 
loyal  to  such  laws. 

But  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  is  one  which  contra 
dicts  the  acknowledged  precepts  of  the  Christian  re 
ligion,  universally  acknowledged.  It  violates  the  no 
blest  instincts  of  humanity ;  it  asks  us  to  trample  on 
the  law  of  God.  It  commands  what  nature,  religion, 
and  God  alike  forbid;  it  forbids  what  nature,  religion, 
and  God  alike  command.  It  tends  to  defeat  the  object 
of  all  just  human  law;  it  tends  to  annihilate  the  ob 
servance  of  the  law  of  God.  So  faithful  to  God,  to 
religion,  to  human  nature,  and  in  the  name  of  law 
itself,  we  protest  against  this  particular  statute,  and 
trample  it  under  our  feet. 

Who  is  it  that  oppose  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law? 
Men  that  have  always  been  on  the  side  of  "  law  and 
order,"  and  do  not  violate  the  statutes  of  men  for  their 
own  advantage.  This  disobedience  to  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Law  is  one  of  the  strongest  guarantees  for  the 
observance  of  any  just  law.  You  cannot  trust  a  peo 
ple  who  will  keep  law;  because  it  is  law;  nor  need  we 
distrust  a  people  that  will  only  keep  a  law  when  it  is 
just.  The  Fugitive  Slave  Law  itself,  if  obeyed,  will 


THE  FUGITIVE  SLAVE  LAW  149 

do  more  to  overturn  the  power  of  human  law,  than  all 
disobedience  to  it  —  the  most  complete. 

Then  as  to  dissolution  of  the  Union.  I  [have] 
thought  if  any  State  wished  to  go,  she  had  a  natural 
right  to  do  so.  But  what  States  wished  to  go?  Cer 
tainly  not  New  England:  by  no  means.  Massachu 
setts  has  always  been  attached  to  the  Union, —  has 
made  sacrifices  for  it.  In  1775,  if  she  had  said, 
"  There  shall  be  no  Revolution,"  there  would  have  been 
none.  But  she  furnished  nearly  half  the  soldiers  for 
the  war,  and  more  than  half  of  the  money.  In  '87, 
if  Massachusetts  had  said,  "  Let  there  be  no  Union !  " 
there  would  have  been  none.  It  was  with  difficulty 
that  Massachusetts  assented  to  the  Constitution.  But 
that  once  formed,  she  has  adhered  to  it;  faith 
fully  adhered  to  the  Union.  When  has  Massachusetts 
failed  in  allegiance  to  it?  No  man  can  say.  There 
is  no  danger  of  a  dissolution  of  the  Union;  the  men 
who  make  the  cry  know  that  it  is  vain  and  deceit 
ful.  You  cannot  drive  us  asunder  —  just  yet. 

But  suppose  that  was  the  alternative:  that  we  must 
have  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  or  dissolution.  Which 
were  the  worst;  which  comes  nearest  to  the  law  of 
God  which  we  all  are  to  keep?  It  is  very  plain.  Now 
for  the  first  time  since  '87,  many  men  of  Massachusetts 
calculate  the  value  of  the  Union.  What  is  it  worth? 
Is  it  worth  so  much  to  us  as  conscience;  so  much  as 
freedom;  so  much  as  allegiance  to  the  law  of  God? 
let  any  man  lay  his  hand  on  his  heart  and  say,  "  I 
will  sacrifice  all  these  for  the  union  of  the  thirty 
States!  For  my  own  part,  I  would  rather  see  my 
own  house  burnt  to  the  ground,  and  my  family  thrown, 
one  by  one,  amid  the  blazing  rafters  of  my  own  roof, 
and  I  myself  be  thrown  in  last  of  all,  rather  than 


150  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

have  a  single  fugitive  slave  sent  back  as  Thomas  Sims 
was  sent  back.  Nay,  I  should  rather  see  this  Union 
"  dissolved  "  till  there  was  not  a  territory  so  large  as 
the  county  of  Suffolk!  Let  us  lose  everything  but 
fidelity  to  God. 

Mr.  Osgood  reflects  on  me  for  my  sermons ;  they  are 
poor  enough.  You  know  it  if  you  try  to  read  such  as 
are  in  print.  I  know  it  better  than  you.  But  I  am 
not  going  to  speak  honeyed  words  and  prophesy 
smooth  things  in  times  like  these,  and  say,  "  Peace ! 
peace !  when  there  is  no  peace !  " 

A  little  while  ago  we  were  told  we  must  not  preach 
on  this  matter  of  slavery,  because  it  was  "  an  abstrac 
tion  ;  "  then  because  the  North  was  "  all  right  on  that 
subject;"  and  then  because  we  had  "nothing  to 
do  with  it,"  we  "  must  go  to  Charleston  or  New  Or 
leans  to  see  it."  But  now  it  is  a  most  concrete  thing. 
We  see  what  public  opinion  is  on  the  matter  of  slavery ; 
what  it  is  in  Boston ;  nay,  what  it  is  with  members  of 
this  Conference.  It  favors  slavery  and  this  wicked 
law !  We  need  not  go  to  Charleston  and  New  Orleans 
to  see  slavery ;  our  own  court-house  was  a  barracoon ; 
our  officers  of  this  city  were  slave-hunters,  and  mem 
bers  of  Unitarian  churches  in  Boston  are  kidnappers. 

I  have  in  my  church  black  men,  fugitive  slaves. 
They  are  the  crown  of  my  apostleship,  the  seal  of  my 
ministry.  It  becomes  me  to  look  after  their  bodies  in 
order  to  "  save  their  souls."  This  law  has  brought  us 
into  the  most  intimate  connection  with  the  sin  of  slav 
ery.  I  have  been  obliged  to  take  my  own  parishion 
ers  into  my  house  to  keep  them  out  of  the  clutches 
of  the  kidnapper.  Yes,  gentlemen,  I  have  been  obliged 
to  do  that ;  and  then  to  keep  my  doors  guarded  by  day 
as  well  as  by  night.  Yes,  I  have  had  to  arm  my- 


THE  FUGITIVE  SLAVE  LAW  151 

self.  I  have  written  my  sermons  with  a  pistol  in  my 
desk, —  loaded,  a  cap  on  the  nipple,  and  ready  for 
action.  Yea,  with  a  drawn  sword  within  reach  of  my 
right  hand.  This  I  have  done  in  Boston ;  in  the  mid 
dle  of  the  nineteenth  century;  been  obliged  to  do  it 
to  defend  the  [innocent]  members  of  my  own  church, 
women  as  well  as  men  t 

You  know  that  I  do  not  like  fighting.  I  am  no 
non-resistant,  "  that  nonsense*  never  went  down  with 
me."  But  it  is  no  small  matter  which  will  compel  me 
to  shed  human  blood.  But  what  could  I  do?  I  was 
born  in  the  little  town  where  the  fight  and  bloodshed  of 
the  Revolution  began.  The  bones  of  the  men  who  first 
fell  in  that  war  are  covered  by  the  monument  at  Lex 
ington,  it  is  "  sacred  to  liberty  and  the  rights  of  man 
kind  ;  "  those  men  fell  "  in  the  sacred  cause  of  God 
and  their  country."  This  is  the  first  inscription  that 
I  ever  read.  These  men  were  my  kindred.  My  grand 
father  drew  the  first  sword  in  the  Revolution ;  my  fath 
ers  fired  the  first  shot ;  the  blood  which  flowed  there  was 
kindred  to  this  which  courses  in  my  veins  to-day.  Be 
sides  that,  when  I  write  in  my  library  at  home,  on  the 
one  side  of  me  is  the  Bible  which  my  fathers  prayed 
over,  their  morning  and  evening  prayer,  for  nearly  a 
hundred  years.  On  the  other  side  there  hangs  the 
firelock  my  grandfather  fought  with  in  the  old  French 
war,  which  he  carried  at  the  taking  of  Quebec,  which 
he  zealously  used  at  the  battle  of  Lexington,  and  be 
side  it  is  another,  a  trophy  of  that  war,  the  first  gun 
taken  in  the  Revolution,  taken  also  by  my  grandfather. 

*Mr.  May  of  Syracuse  afterwards  objected  to  the  word 
nonsense  as  applied  to  non-resistance.  The  phrase  was  quoted 
from  another  member  of  the  Conference,  whose  eye  caught  mine 
while  speaking,  and  suggested  his  own  language. 


152  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

With  these  things  before  me,  these  symbols ;  with  these 
memories  in  me,  when  a  parishioner,  a  fugitive  from 
slavery,  a  woman,  pursued  by  the  kidnappers,  came  to 
my  house,  what  could  I  do  less  than  take  her  in  and 
defend  her  to  the  last?  But  who  sought  her  life  — 
or  liberty?  A  parishioner  of  my  brother  Gannett 
came  to  kidnap  a  member  of  my  church ;  Mr.  Gannett 
preaches  a  sermon  to  justify  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law, 
demanding  that  it  should  be  obeyed ;  yes,  calling  on  his 
church  members  to  kidnap  mine,  and  sell  them  into 
bondage  forever. 

Yet  all  this  while  Mr.  Gannett  calls  himself  a 
"  Christian,"  and  me  an  "  infidel ; "  his  doctrine  is 
"  Christianity,"  mine  only  "  infidelity,"  "  deism,  at 
the  best ! " 

O  my  brothers,  I  am  not  afraid  of  men,  I  can  of 
fend  them.  I  care  nothing  for  their  hate,  or  their 
esteem.  I  am  not  very  careful  of  my  reputation. 
But  I  should  not  dare  to  violate  the  eternal  law  of 
God.  You  have  called  me  "  infidel."  Surely  I  differ 
widely  enough  from  you  in  my  theology.  But  there 
is  one  thing  I  cannot  fail  to  trust;  that  is  the  Infinite 
God,  Father  of  the  white  man,  Father  also  of  the  white 
man's  slave.  I  should  not  dare  violate  His  laws,  come 
what  may  come ;  —  should  you  ?  Nay,  I  can  love 
nothing  so  well  as  I  love  my  God. 


VI 

AN  ANTI-SLAVERY  ADDRESS* 
1854 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN, —  I  shall  ask  jour  atten 
tion  this  evening  to  some  few  thoughts  on  the  pres 
ent  condition  of  the  United  States  in  respect  to  slav 
ery.  After  all  that  has  been  said  by  wise,  powerful, 
and  eloquent  men,  in  this  city,  this  week,  perhaps  I 
shall  have  scarce  anything  to  present  that  is  new. 

As  you  look  on  the  general  aspect  of  America  to 
day,  its  main  features  are  not  less  than  sublime,  while 
they  are  likewise  beautiful  exceedingly.  The  full 
breadth  of  the  continent  is  ours,  from  sea  to  sea,  from 
the  Great  Lakes  to  the  great  Gulf.  There  are  three 
million  square  miles,  with  every  variety  of  climate,  and 
soil,  and  mineral;  great  rivers,  a  static  force,  inclined 
planes  for  travel  reaching  from  New  Orleans  to  the 
Falls  of  St.  Anthony,  from  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Law 
rence  to  Chicago;  smaller  rivers,  a  dynamic  force, 
turning  the  many  thousand  mills  of  the  industrious 
North.  There  is  a  coast  most  richly  indented,  to  aid 
the  spread  of  civilization.  The  United  States  has 
more  than  twelve  thousand  miles  of  shore  line  on  the 
continent ;  more  than  nine  thousand  on  its  islands ;  more 
than  twenty-four  thousand  miles  of  river  navigation. 
Here  is  the  material  groundwork  for  a  great  State  — 
not  an  empire,  but  a  commonwealth.  The  world  has 
not  such  another. 

There  are  twenty-four  millions  of  men;  fifteen  and 

a  half  millions  with  Anglo-Saxon  blood  in  their  veins 

—  strong,  real  Anglo-Saxon  blood ;  eight  millions  and 

*  Address  delivered  before  the  New  York  Anti-Slavery  Society. 

153 


154  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

a  half  more  of  other  families  and  races,  just  enough 
to  temper  the  Anglo-Saxon  blood,  to  furnish  a  new 
composite  tribe,  far  better,  I  trust,  than  the  old.  What 
a  human  basis  for  a  State  to  be  erected  on  this  material 
groundwork ! 

On  the  eastern  slopes  of  the  continent,  where  the 
high  lands  which  reach  from  the  Katahdin  mountain 
in  Maine  to  the  end  of  the  Appalachians  in  Georgia — 
on  the  Atlantic  slopes,  where  the  land  pitches  down  to 
the  sea  from  the  48th  to  the  28th  parallel,  there  are 
fifteen  States,  a  million  square  miles  communicating 
with  the  ocean.  In  the  South,  rivers  bear  to  the  sea 
rice,  cotton,  tobacco,  and  the  products  of  half-tropic 
agriculture ;  in  the  North,  smaller  streams  toil  all  day, 
and  sometimes  all  night,  working  wood,  iron,  cotton, 
and  wool  into  forms  of  use  and  beauty,  while  iron  roads 
carry  to  the  sea  the  productions  of  temperate  agricul 
ture,  mining  and  manufactures. 

On  the  western  slope,  where  the  rivers  flow  down 
to  the  Pacific  Ocean  from  the  49th  to  the  32nd  par 
allel,  is  a  great  country,  almost  eight  hundred 
thousand  square  miles  in  extent.  There,  too,  the 
Anglo-Saxon  has  gone;  in  the  South,  the  gold-hunter 
gathers  the  precious  metals,  while  the  farmer,  the  miner, 
and  the  woodman  gather  far  more  precious  products  in 
the  North. 

In  the  great  basin  between  the  Cordilleras  of  the 
West  and  the  Alleghanies,  where  the  Mississippi  drains 
half  the  continent  to  the  Mediterranean  of  the  New 
World,  there  also  the  Anglo-Saxon  has  occupied  the 
ground  —  twelve  hundred  thousand  square  miles ;  in 
the  south  to  rear  cotton,  rice,  and  sugar;  in  the  north 
to  raise  cattle  and  cereal  grasses,  for  beast  and  for 
man. 


AN  ANTI-SLAVERY  ADDRESS          155 

What  a  spectacle  it  is!  A  nation  not  eighty  years 
old  and  still  in  its  cradle,  and  yet  grown  so  great. 
Two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  there  was  not  an 
Anglo-Saxon  on  all  this  continent.  Now  there  is  an 
Anglo-Saxon  commonwealth  twenty-four  millions 
strong.  Rich  as  it  is  in  numbers,  there  are  not  yet 
eight  men  to  the  square  mile. 

All  this  is  a  republic ;  it  is  a  democracy.  There  is 
no  born  priest  to  stand  betwixt  the  nation  and  its 
God;  no  pope  to  entail  his  nephews  on  the  Church; 
no  bishop  claiming  divine  right  to  rule  over  the  people 
and  stand  betwixt  them  and  the  Infinite.  There  is  no 
king,  no  born  king,  to  ride  on  the  nation's  neck. 
There  are  noble-men,  but  none  noble-born  to  usurp  the 
land,  to  monopolize  the  government  and  keep  the  com 
munity  from  the  bosom  of  the  earth.  The  people  is 
priest,  and  makes  its  own  religion  out  of  God's  revela 
tion  in  man's  nature  and  history.  The  people  is  its 
own  king  to  rule  itself;  its  own  noble  to  occupy  the 
earth.  The  people  make  the  laws  and  choose  their 
own  magistrates.  Industry  is  free ;  travel  is  free ;  re 
ligion  is  free;  speech  is  free;  there  are  no  shackles  on 
the  press.  The  nation  rests  on  industry,  not  on  war. 
It  is  formed  of  agriculturists,  traders,  sailors,  miners 
—  not  a  nation  of  soldiers.  The  army  numbers  ten 
thousand  —  one  soldier  for  every  twenty-four  thou 
sand  men.  The  people  are  at  peace ;  no  nation  invades 
us.  The  government  is  firmly  fixed  and  popular.  A 
nation  loving  liberty,  loves  likewise  law ;  and  when  it 
gets  a  point  of  liberty,  it  fences  it  all  round  with  law 
as  high  up  as  the  hands  reach.  We  annually  welcome 
four  hundred  thousand  immigrants  who  flee  from  the 
despotism  of  the  Old  World. 

The  country   is   rich  —  after  England,  the  richest 


156  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAX 

on  earth  in  cultivated  lands,  roads,  houses,  mills.  Four 
million  tons  of  shipping  sail  under  the  American  flag. 
This  year  we  shall  build  half  a  million  tons  more, 
which,  at  forty  dollars  a  ton,  is  worth  twenty  millions 
of  dollars.  That  is  the  ship  crop.  Then,  the  corn 
crop  is  seven  hundred  millions  of  bushels  —  Indian 
corn.  What  a  harvest  of  coal,  copper,  iron,  lead,  of 
wheat,  cotton,  sugar,  rice,  is  produced ! 

Over  all  and  above  all  these  there  rises  the  great 
American  political  idea,  a  "  self-evident  truth " 
which  cannot  be  proved  —  it  needs  no  proof ;  it  is  an 
terior  to  demonstration ;  namely,  that  every  man  is 
endowed  by  his  Creator  with  certain  inalienable  rights, 
and  in  these  rights  all  men  are  equal;  and  on  these  the 
government  is  to  rest,  deriving  its  sole  sanction  from 
the  governed's  consent. 

Higher  yet  above  this  material  groundwork,  this 
human  foundation,  this  accumulation  of  numbers,  of 
riches,  of  industry  —  as  the  cross  on  the  top  of  a  tall, 
wide  dome,  whose  lantern  is  the  great  American  po 
litical  idea  —  as  the  cross  that  surmounts  it  rises  the 
American  religious  idea  —  one  God ;  Christianity  the 
true  religion ;  and  the  worship  of  God  by  love ;  in 
wardly  it  is  piety,  love  to  God ;  outwardly  love  to  man 
—  morality,  benevolence,  philanthropy. 

What  a  spectacle  to  the  eyes  of  the  Scandinavian, 
the  German,  the  Dutchman,  the  Irishman,  as  they  view 
America  from  afar!  What  a  contrast  it  seems  to 
Europe.  There  liberty  is  ideal,  it  is  a  dream;  here  it 
is  organic,  an  institution ;  one  of  the  establishments 
of  the  land. 

That,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  is  the  aspect  which 
America  presents  to  the  oppressed  victims  of  European 
despotism  in  Church  and  in  State.  Far  off  on  the 


AN  ANTI-SLAVERY  ADDRESS          157 

other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  among  the  Apennines,  on 
the  plains  of  Germany,  and  in  the  Slavonian  lands,  I 
have  met  men  to  whom  America  seemed  as  this  fair- 
proportioned  edifice  that  I  have  thus  sketched  out  be 
fore  your  eyes.  But  when  they  come  nearer,  behold  half 
the  land  is  black  with  slavery.  In  1850,  out  of  more 
than  two  hundred  and  forty  hundred  thousand  Amer 
icans  (24,000,000),  thirty-two  hundred  thousand 
(3,200,000)  were  slaves  —  more  than  an  eighth  of  the 
population  counted  as  cattle;  not  as  citizens  at  all. 
They  are  only  human  material,  not  yet  wrought  into 
citizens  —  nay,  not  counted  human.  They  are  cattle, 
property ;  not  counted  men,  but  animals  and  no  more. 
Manhood  must  not  be  extended  to  them.  Listen  while 
I  read  to  you  from  a  Southern  print.  It  was  recom 
mended  by  the  governor  of  Alabama  that  the  legisla 
ture  should  pass  a  law  prohibiting  the  separation  of 
families ;  whereupon  the  Richmond  Inquirer  discourses 
thus :  - 

"This  recommendation  strikes  us  as  being  most  unwise  and 
impolitic.  If  slaves  are  property,  then  should  they  be  at  the 
absolute  disposal  of  the  master,  or  be  subject  only  to  such 
legal  provisions  as  are  designed  for  the  protection  of  life  and 
limb.  If  the  relation  of  master  and  slave  be  infringed  for  one 
purpose,  it  would  be  difficult  to  fix  any  limit  to  the  encroach 
ment." 

They  are  property,  no  more,  and  must  be  treated  as 
such,  and  not  as  men. 

Slavery  is  on  the  Atlantic  slopes  of  the  continent. 
There  are  one  million  six  hundred  thousand  (1,600,- 
000)  slaves  between  the  Alleghany  range  and  the  At 
lantic  coast.  Slavery  is  in  the  central  basin.  There 
are  a  million  and  a  half  of  slaves  on  the  land  drained 
by  the  Mississippi.  Spite  of  law  and  constitution, 
slavery  has  gone  to  the  Pacific  slopes,  travelling  with 


158  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

the  goldhunter  into  California.  The  State  whose  cap 
ital  county  "  in  three  years  committed  over  twelve  hun 
dred  murders "  has  very  appropriately  legalized 
slavery  for  a  limited  time.  I  suppose  it  is  only  pre 
liminary  to  legalizing  it  for  a  time  limited  only  by  the 
Eternal  God.  In  the  very  capital  of  the  Christian 
democracy  there  are  four  thousand  purchased  men. 
In  the  Senate-house,  a  few  years  ago,  a  Mississippi 
senator  belched  out  his  imprecations  against  that  one 
New  Hampshire  senator  who  has  never  yet  been  found 
false  to  humanity.  Mr.  Foote  was  a  freeman,  a  citi 
zen,  and  a  "  Democrat ; "  and  while,  in  the  halls  of 
Congress,  he  was  threatening  to  hang  John  P.  Hale 
on  the  tallest  pine  tree  in  Mississippi,  there  toiled  in  a 
stable,  whose  loft  he  slept  in  by  night,  one  of  that 
senator's  own  brothers.  The  son  of  Mr.  Foote's 
father  was  a  slave  in  the  capital  of  the  United  States, 
while  his  half-brother  —  by  the  father's  side  —  threat 
ened  to  hang  on  the  tallest  pine  in  Mississippi  the  only 
senator  that  New  Hampshire  sent  to  Washington  who 
dared  be  true  to  truth  and  free  for  freedom. 

But  a  few  years  ago,  Mr.  Hope  H.  Slatter  had  his 
negro  market  in  the  capital  of  the  United  States ;  one 
of  the  greatest  slave-dealers  in  America.  He  was  a 
member  also,  it  is  said,  of  a  "  Christian  church."  The 
slave-pen  is  a  singular  institution  for  a  democratic 
metropolis,  and  the  slave-trader  a  peculiar  ornament 
for  the  Christian  church  in  the  capital  of  a  democracy. 
He  grew  rich,  went  to  Baltimore,  had  a  fine  house,  and 
once  entertained  a  "  President  of  the  United  States  " 
in  his  mansion.  The  slave-trader  and  the  Democratic 
President  met  together  —  Slatter  and  Polk !  fit  guest 
and  fitting  host ! 

In  all  the  three  million   square  miles   of  American 


AN  ANTI-SLAVERY  ADDRESS          159 

land  there  is  no  inch  of  free  soil,  from  the  St.  John's 
to  the  Rio  Gila,  from  Madawasca  to  San  Diego.  The 
star-spangled  banner  floats  from  Vancouver  Island 
by  Nootka  Sound  to  Key  West,  on  the  south  of  Flor 
ida,  and  all  the  way  the  flag  of  our  Union  is  the  stand 
ard  of  slavery.  In  all  the  soil  that  our  fathers  fought 
to  make  free  from  English  tyranny,  there  is  not  an 
inch  where  the  black  man  is  free,  save  the  five  thousand 
miles  that  Daniel  Webster  surrendered  to  Lord  Ash- 
burton  by  the  treaty  of  1842.  The  symbol  of  the 
Union  is  a  fetter.  The  President  should  be  sworn  on 
the  auction  block  of  a  slave-trader.  The  New  Hamp 
shire  President,  in  his  inaugural,  declared,  publicly, 
his  allegiance  to  the  slave  power  —  not  to  the  power 
of  Northern  mechanics,  free  farmers,  free  manufac 
turers,  free  men ;  but  allegiance  to  the  slave  power ;  he 
swears  special  protection  to  no  property  but  "  prop 
erty  "  in  slaves ;  specific  allegiance  to  no  law  but  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Bill ;  devotion  to  no  right  but  the  slave 
holder's  "  right "  to  his  property  in  man. 

The  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  is  a  slave 
court;  a  majority  of  the  Senate  and  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  the  same.  It  has  been  so  this  forty 
years.  The  majority  of  the  House  of  Representa 
tives  are  obedient  to  the  lords  of  the  lash;  a  majority 
of  Northern  politicians,  especially  of  that  denomina 
tion  which  is  called  "  dough-faces,"  are  only  overseers 
for  the  owner  of  the  slave.  Mr.  Douglas  is  a  great 
overseer;  Mr.  Everett  is  a  little  overseer,  very  little. 

The  nation  offers  a  homestead  out  of  its  public 
land;  it  is  only  to  the  white  man.  What  would  you 
say  if  the  emperor  of  Russia  offered  land  only  to 
nobles;  the  pope  only  to  priests;  Queen  Victoria  only 
to  lords?  Each  male  settler  in  Utah,  it  seems,  is  to 


160  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

have  four  hundred  and  eighty  acres  of  land  if  he  is 
not  married,  and  a  hundred  and  sixty  more,  I  believe, 
according  to  one  proposition,  for  every  wife  that  he 
has  got.  But  if  he  has  the  complexion  of  the  only 
children  that  Madison  left  behind  him,  he  can  have  no 
land  at  all. 

Even  a  Boston  school-house  is  shut  against  the  black 
man's  children.  The  arm  of  the  city  government 
slams  the  door  in  every  colored  boy's  face.  His  father 
helps  pay  for  the  public  school ;  the  son  and  daughter 
must  not  come  in. 

In  the  slave  States,  it  is  a  crime  to  teach  the  slave  to 
read  and  write.  Out  of  four  millions  of  children  of 
America  at  school  in  1850,  there  were  twenty-six  thou 
sand  that  were  colored.  There  were  more  than  four 
hundred  thousand  free  colored  persons,  and  there  were 
more  than  two  hundred  and  fourteen  thousand  thereof 
under  the  age  of  twenty ;  of  these,  there  were  at  school 
only  twenty-six  thousand  —  one  child  in  nine!  Out 
of  three  and  a  quarter  millions  of  slaves,  there  was 
not  one  at  school.  It  is  a  crime  by  the  statute  m 
every  slave  State  to  teach  a  slave  to  spell  "  God." 
He  may  be  a  Christian ;  he  must  not  write  "  Christ." 
He  must  worship  the  Bible;  he  must  not  read  it!  It 
is  a  crime  even  in  a  Sunday  School  to  teach  a  child 
the  great  letters  which  spell  out  "  Holy  Bible."  I 
knew  a  minister,  he  was  a  Connecticut  man,  too,  who 
went  off  from  New  Orleans  because  he  did  not  dare  to 
stay ;  and  he  did  not  dare  to  stay  because  he  tried  to 
teach  the  slave  to  read  in  his  Sunday  School.  He  went 
back  to  Connecticut,  whence  he  will,  perhaps,  go  as 
missionary  to  China  or  Turkey,  and  find  none  to  hinder 
his  Christian  work. 

At  the  North,  the  black  man   is  shut   out  of  the 


AN  ANTI-SLAVERY  ADDRESS          161 

meeting-house.  In  heaven,  according  to  the  theology 
of  America,  he  may  sit  down  with  the  just  made  per 
fect,  his  sins  washed  white  "  in  the  blood  of  the 
Lamb ; "  but  when  he  comes  to  a  certain  Baptist 
church  in  Boston,  he  cannot  own  a  pew.  And  there 
are  few  churches  where  he  can  sit  in  a  pew.  The  rich 
and  the  poor  are  there ;  the  one  Lord  is  the  Maker  of 
them  all;  but  the  Church  thinks  He  did  not  make  the 
black  as  well  as  the  white.  Nay ;  he  is  turned  out  of 
the  omnibus,  out  of  the  burial  ground.  There  is  a 
burial  ground  in  this  State,  and  in  the  deed  that  con 
fers  the  land  it  is  stipulated  that  no  colored  person  or 
convict  can  ever  be  buried  there.  He  is  turned  out 
of  the  graveyard,  where  the  great  mother  of  our  bodies 
gathers  our  dust  when  the  sods  of  the  valley  are 
sweet  to  the  soul.  Nowhere  but  in  the  jail  and  on  the 
gallows  has  the  black  man  equal  rights  with  the  white 
in  our  American  legislation ! 

The  American  press  —  it  is  generally  the  foe  of  the 
slave,  the  advocate  of  bondage. 

In  Virginia,  it  is  felony  to  deny  the  master's  right  to 
own  his  slave.  There  is  an  old  law,  re-enacted  in  the 
revision  of  the  Virginia  statute,  which  inflicts  a  punish 
ment  of  not  more  than  one  year's  confinement  on  any 
one  guilty  of  that  offense.  It  was  proposed  in  the 
Virginia  legislature,  last  winter,  that  if  a  man  had 
conscientious  objections  to  holding  slaves,  he  should 
not  be  allowed  to  sit  on  any  jury  where  the  matter  of 
a  man's  freedom  was  in  question.  Nor  is  that  all. 
There  is  a  law  in  Virginia,  it  is  said,  that  when  a  man 
has  three-quarters  white  blood  in  his  veins,  he  may  re 
cover  his  freedom  in  virtue  of  that  fact.  It  is  well 
known  that  at  least  half  the  slaves  in  Virginia  are  half 
white  and  one-quarter  of  them  three-quarters  white. 
XIII— 11 


162  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

Accordingly,  it  was  proposed  in  one  of  their  news 
papers  that  that  old  law  should  be  repealed,  and  an 
other  substituted,  providing  that  no  man  should  re 
cover  his  freedom  in  consequence  of  his  complexion, 
unless  he  had  more  than  nine-tenths  white  blood  in  his 
veins. 

The  slave  has  no  rights;  the  ideas  of  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence  are  repudiated ;  he  is  not  "  en 
dowed  by  his  Creator "  with  "  certain  inalienable 
rights  "  to  "  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happi 
ness."  Accomplished  Mr.  Agassiz  comes  all  the  way 
from  Switzerland  to  teach  us  the  science  which  God 
has  stored  up  in  the  ground  under  our  feet  —  the 
perennial  Old  Testament  —  or  in  the  frames  of  our 
bodies,  this  living  New  Testament  of  Almighty  God 
in  man ;  and  he  tells  us  this :  "  The  Mandingo  and 
tlie  Guinea  negro  "  together  "  do  not  differ  more  from 
the  orang  outang  than  the  Malay  or  white  man  dif 
fers  from  the  negro."  So,  according  to  Mr.  Agassiz, 
the  negro  is  a  sort  of  arithmetic  mean  proportional 
between  a  man  and  a  monkey.  The  upright  form,  the 
power  of  speech,  the  religious  faculty,  permanence  of 
affection,  self-denial,  power  to  master  the  earth,  and 
smelt  iron  ore,  as  the  African  has  done,  and  is  doing 
still,  every  year,  do  not  distinguish  the  black  man  from 
the  orang  outang. 

"  O  star-eyed  science !  hast  thou  wandered  there, 
To  waft  us  home  the  message  of  despair?" 

Mr.  Agassiz  is  an  able  man,  of  large  genius,  industry 
that  never  surrenders,  and  was  a  bold  champion  of 
freedom  on  his  own  Swiss  hills.  He  comes  to  Amer 
ica;  he  is  subdued  to  the  temper  of  our  atmosphere; 
and,  from  a  great  man  of  science,  he  becomes  the 


AN  ANTI-SLAVERY  ADDRESS          163 

Swiss  of  slavery.  Southern  journals  rejoice  at  the 
confirmation  of  their  opinion.  Listen  to  what  a 
Southern  editor  says.  I  am  quoting  now  from  one  of 
the  most  powerful  Southern  journals,  printed  at  the 
capital  of  Virginia,  the  Richmond  Examiner;  and  the 
words  which  I  read  were  written  by  the  American 
charge  d'affaires  at  Turin.  He  says :  "  The  founda 
tion  and  right  of  negro  slavery  is  in  its  utility  and 
the  fitness  of  things ;  it  is  the  same  right  by  which  we 
hold  property  m  domestic  animals."  The  negro  is 
"  the  connecting  link  between  the  human  and  brute 
creation."  "  The  negro  is  not  the  white  man.  Not 
with  more  safety  do  we  assert  that  a  horse  is  not  a  hog. 
Hay  is  good  for  horses  —  but  not  for  hogs ;  liberty 
is  good  for  white  men,  but  not  for  negroes."  "  A  law 
rendering  perpetual  the  relation  between  a  negro  and 
his  master  is  no  wrong,  but  a  right." 

Then,  in  reply  to  some  writer  in  the  Tribune,  who 
had  asked,  "  Have  they  no  souls  ?  "  he  says,  "  They 
may  have  souls  for  aught  I  know  to  the  contrary ;  so 
may  horses  and  hogs."  Then,  when  somebody  quotes 
the  Bible  in  behalf  of  the  rights  of  men,  he  answers: 
'',The  Bible  has  been  vouchsafed  to  mankind  for  the 
purpose  of  keeping  us  out  of  hell-fire  and  getting  us 
into  heaven  by  the  mysteries  of  faith  and  the  Inner 
life;  not  to  teach  us  a  government  political  economy," 
etc. 

The  American  Church  repudiates  the  Christian  re 
ligion  when  it  comes  to  speak  about  the  African.  It 
does  not  apply  the  Golden  Rule  to  the  slave.  The 
"  servants  "  of  the  New  Testament,  in  the  slave  lan 
guage,  were  "  slaves,"  and  the  American  Church  com 
mands  them  to  be  obedient  to  their  masters.  There 
must  be  no  marriage  —  the  affectional  and  passional 


164  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

union  of  one  man  and  one  woman  for  life  —  only 
transient  concubinage.  Marriage  is  inconsistent  with 
slavery,  and  the  slave  wedlock  in  the  American  Church 
is  not  a  sacrament.  "  Manifest  destiny  "  is  the  cry  of 
politicians,  and  that  demands  slavery :  "  the  will  of 
God "  is  the  cry  of  the  priests,  and  it  demands  the 
same  thing.  I  am  not  speaking  of  ministers  of  Chris 
tianity;  they  are  very  different  sort  of  men,  and  preach 
a  very  different  creed  from  that  —  only  of  the  min 
isters  in  the  churches  of  commerce.  According 
to  the  popular  theology  of  all  Christendom,  Jesus 
Christ  came  on  earth  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which 
is  lost.  The  good  physician  does  not  go  among 
the  whole,  but  among  the  sick.  If  he  were  to 
come  here  to  seek  to  relieve  the  slave,  the  leading 
men  in  American  denominations  would  tell  him  he  came 
before  he  was  called ;  he  ran  before  he  was  sent  —  that 
it  was  no  mission  from  God  to  break  a  single  American 
fetter,  nor  to  let  the  oppressed  go  free.  Is  not  the 
"  Constitution  "  above  "  conscience,"  and  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill  more  holy  than  the  Bible?  the  commissioner 
of  more  authority  than  Christ? 

"O  Faith  of  Christians,  hast  thou  wandered  there 
To  waft  us  home  the  message  of  despair? 
Then   bind   the  palm   thy  sage's   brow   to  suit, 
Of  blasted  leaf  and  death-distilling  fruit." 

Such  is  the  aspect  of  America  when  the  immigrant 
comes  near  and  looks  the  nation  in  the  face.  What  a 
spectacle  that  is  to  put  alongside  of  the  other!  Eu 
rope  repudiates  bondage  —  Scandinavia,  Holland, 
France,  England.  Since  Britain  emancipated  her 
slaves,  the  present  Emperor  of  Russia  has  set  free  over 
seven  million  of  slaves  that  belonged  to  his  own  pri 
vate  domain,  and  established  more  than  four  thousand 


AN  ANTI-SLAVERY  ADDRESS          165 

schools,  free  for  those  seven  millions  of  emancipated 
slaves;  and  did  he  not  fear  an  outbreak  in  a  country 
where  "  revolution  is  endemic,"  he  would  set  free  the 
other  five-and-thirty  millions  that  occupy  his  soil  to 
day.  And  when  he  extends  his  territory,  he  never 
extends  the  area  of  bondage,  only  the  area  of  what  in 
Russia  is  freedom. 

What  a  spectacle!  A  country  reaching  from  sea 
to  sea,  from  the  gulf  of  tropic  heat  to  Lake  Superior's 
arctic  cold,  and  not  an  inch  of  free  soil  all  the  way ! 
Three  millions  of  square  miles,  and  not  a  foot  where 
a  fugitive  from  slavery  can  be  safe!  A  democracy, 
and  every  eighth  man  bought  and  sold ! 

It  is  the  richest  nation  in  the  world,  after  England ; 
yet,  we  are  so  poor  that  every  eighth  man  is  unable  to 
say  that  he  owns  the  smallest  finger  on  his  feeblest 
hand.  So  poor  are  we  amid  our  riches,  that  every 
eighth  woman  is  to  such  an  extent  a  pauper  that  she 
does  not  own  the  baby  she  has  borne  into  the  world, 
nor  even  the  baby  that  she  bears  under  her  bosom! 
Maternity  is  put  up  at  public  vendue,  and  the  auc 
tioneer  says,  "  So  much  for  the  mother  and  so  much 
for  the  hopes  and  expectations  of  another  life  that  is 
to  be  born !  " 

America  calls  herself  "  the  best  educated  nation  in 
the  world,"  and  yet,  in  fifteen  democratic  States,  it  is 
a  felony  by  statute  to  teach  a  child  to  know  the 
three  letters  that  spell  "  God."  What  a  spectacle  is 
that! 

Nor  is  that  all;  but  able  men,  well-educated  and 
well-endowed,  come  forward  to  teach  us  that  slavery 
is  not  only  no  evil,  but  is  right  as  a  principle,  and  is 
divine  —  is  a  part  of  the  divine  revelation  which  the 
great  God  miraculously  made  to  man.  What  a  spec 
tacle  ! 


166  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

Four  hundred  thousand  immigrants  come  here  openly 
every  year,  and  a  thousand  fugitives  flee  off  by  night, 
escaping  from  American  despotism.  They  go  by  the 
underground  railroad,  shut  up  in  boxes  smaller  than 
a  coffin,  or,  as  lately  happened,  riding  through  the 
storms  of  ocean  in  the  fore-chains  of  a  packet  ship, 
wet  by  every  dash  of  the  sea,  and  frozen  by  the  win 
ter's  wind.  Far  off  in  the  South  the  spirit  of  free 
dom  came  in  the  Northern  blast  to  the  poor  man,  and 
said  to  him,  "  It  is  better  to  enter  into  freedom  halt 
and  maimed  rather  than,  having  two  hands  and  two 
feet,  to  continue  in  bondage  for  ever ; "  and  he  puts 
himself  in  the  fore-chains  of  a  packet  ship,  and,  half 
frozen,  with  the  loss  of  two  of  his  limbs,  he  gets  to 
the  North,  and  thanks  God  that  he  has  got  one  hand 
and  one  foot  to  enter  into  freedom  with.  Alas !  he  is 
carried  back,  halt  and  maimed,  to  die ;  then  he  goes 
from  bondage  to  that  other  Commonwealth  where  even 
the  American  slave  is  free  from  his  master,  and  Demo 
crats  "  cease  from  troubling." 

America  translates  the  Bible  —  I  am  glad  of  it,  and 
would  give  my  mite  thereto  —  into  a  hundred  and 
forty-seven  different  tongues,  and  sends  missionaries 
all  over  the  world;  and  here  at  home  are  three  and  a 
quarter  millions  of  American  men  who  have  no  Bible, 
whose  only  missionary  is  the  overseer. 

In  the  Hall  of  Independence,  Judge  Kane  and  Judge 
Grier  hold  their  court.  Two  great  official  kidnappers 
of  the  Middle  States  hold  their  slave-court  in  the  very 
building  where  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was 
decreed,  was  signed,  and  thence  published  to  the  world. 
What  a  spectacle  it  is !  We  thought,  a  little  while 
ago,  that  Judge  Jeffreys  was  an  historical  fiction ;  that 
Scroggs  was  impossible.  We  did  not  think  such  a 


AN  ANTI-SLAVERY  ADDRESS          167 

thing  could  exist.  Jeffreys  is  repeated  in  Philadel 
phia  ;  Scroggs  is  brought  back  to  life  in  various  North 
ern  towns.  What  a  spectacle  is  that  for  the  Swiss, 
the  German,  and  the  Scandinavian  who  come  here ! 

Do  these  immigrants  love  American  slavery?  The 
German,  the  Swiss,  the  Scandinavian  hate  it.  I  am 
sorry  to  say  there  is  one  class  of  men  that  come  here 
who  love  it ;  it  is  the  class  most  of  all  sinned  against 
at  home.  When  the  Irishman  comes  to  America,  he 
takes  ground  against  the  African.  I  know  there  are 
exceptions,  and  I  would  go  far  to  honor  them ;  but 
the  Irish,  as  a  body,  oppose  the  emancipation  of  the 
blacks  as  a  body.  Every  sect  that  comes  from  abroad 
numbers  friends  of  freedom  —  except  the  Catholic. 
Those  who  call  themselves  infidels  from  Germany  do 
not  range  on  the  slaveholder's  side.  I  have  known 
some  men  who  take  the  ghastly  and  dreadful  name 
of  atheists ;  but  they  said,  "  there  is  a  law  higher  than 
the  slaveholder's  statute."  But  do  you  know  a  Cath 
olic  priest  that  is  opposed  to  slavery?  I  wish  I  did. 
There  are  good  things  in  the  Catholic  faith  —  the 
Protestants  have  not  wholly  outgrown  it  —  not  yet. 
I  wish  I  could  hear  of  a  single  Catholic  priest  of  any 
eminence  who  ever  cared  anything  for  the  freedom  of 
the  most  oppressed  men  that  are  here  in  America.  I 
have  heard  of  none. 

Look  a  little  closer.  The  great  interests  prized 
most  in  America  are  commerce  and  politics.  The 
great  cities  are  the  headquarters  of  these,  too.  Agri 
culture  and  the  mechanic  arts,  they  are  spread  abroad 
all  over  the  country.  Commerce  and  politics  predom 
inate  in  the  cities.  New  York  is  the  great  metropolis 
of  commerce;  Washington  of  politics.  What  have 
been  the  views  of  American  commerce  in  respect  to 


168  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

freedom?     It  has  been  against  it,  I  am  sorry  to  say 
so. 

In  Europe  commerce  is  the  ally  of  freedom,  and  has 
been,  so  far  back  that  the  memory  of  man  runs  not 
to  the  contrary.  In  America,  the  great  commercial 
centers,  ever  since  the  Revolution,  have  been  hostile  to 
freedom.  In  Massachusetts  we  have  a  few  rich  men 
friendly  to  freedom  —  they  are  very  few ;  the  greater 
part  of  even  Massachusetts  capital  goes  towards 
bondage  —  not  towards  freedom.  In  general,  the 
great  men  of  commerce  are  hostile  to  it.  They  want 
first  money,  next  money,  and  money  last  of  all ;  fairly 
if  we  can  get  it  —  if  not,  unfairly.  Hence  the  com 
mercial  cities  are  the  headquarters  of  slavery;  all  the 
mercantile  capitals  execute  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  - 
Philadelphia,  New  York,  Boston,  Buffalo,  Cincinnati 
—  only  small  towns  repudiate  man-stealing.  The 
Northern  capitalists  lend  money  and  take  slaves  as  col 
lateral  ;  they  are  good  security :  you  can  realize  on 
it  any  day.  The  Northern  merchant  takes  slaves  into 
his  ships  as  merchandise.  It  pays  very  well.  If  you 
take  them  on  a  foreign  voyage,  it  is  "  piracy ;  "  but 
taken  coastwise,  the  domestic  slave  trade  is  a  legal 
traffic.  In  1852,  a  ship  called  the  "  Edward  Everett  " 
made  two  voyages  from  Baltimore  to  New  Orleans,  and 
each  time  it  carried  slaves,  once  twenty,  once  twelve. 

A  sea  captain  in  Massachusetts  told  a  story  to  a 
commissioner  sent  to  look  after  the  Indians,  which  I 
will  tell  you.  He  commanded  a  small  brig,  which  plied 
between  Carolina  and  the  Gulf  States.  "  One  day, 
at  Charleston,"  said  he,  "  a  man  came  and  brought 
to  me  an  old  negro  slave.  He  was  very  old,  and  had 
fought  in  the  Revolution,  and  been  very  distinguished 
for  bravery  and  other  soldierly  qualities.  If  he  had 


AN  ANTI-SLAVERY  ADDRESS          169 

not  been  a  negro,  he  would  have  become  a  captain  at 
least,  perhaps  a  colonel.  But,  in  his  old  age,  his 
master  found  no  use  for  him,  and  said  he  could  not 
afford  to  keep  him.  He  asked  me  to  take  the  revolu 
tionary  soldier  and  carry  him  South  and  sell  him.  I 
carried  him,"  said  the  man,  "  to  Mobile,  and  I  tried  to 
get  as  good  and  kind  a  master  for  him  as  I  could,  for 
I  didn't  like  to  sell  a  man  that  had  fought  for  his 
country.  /  sold  the  old  revolutionary  soldier  for  a 
hundred  dollars  to  a  citizen  of  Mobile,  who  raised 
poultry,  and  he  set  him  to  attend  a  hen-coop."  I  sup 
pose  the  South  Carolina  master  drew  the  pension  till 
the  soldier  died.  "  Why  did  you  do  such  a  thing?  " 
said  my  friend,  who  was  an  anti-slavery  man.  "  If 
I  didn't  do  it,"  he  replied,  "  I  never  could  get  a  bale 
of  cotton,  nor  a  box  of  sugar,  nor  anything  to  carry 
from  or  to  any  Southern  port." 

In  politics,  almost  all  leading  men  have  been  serv 
ants  of  slavery.  Three  "major  prophets"  of  the 
American  Republic  have  gone  home  to  render  their  ac 
count,  where  the  servant  is  free  from  his  master  and 
"  the  wicked  cease  from  troubling,"  and  the  "  weary 
are  at  rest."  Clay,  Calhoun,  Webster;  they  were  all 
prophets  of  slavery  against  freedom.  No  men  of 
high  political  standing  and  influence  have  ever  lived 
in  this  century  who  were  sunk  so  deep  in  the  mire  of 
slavery  as  they  during  the  last  twenty  years.  No  po 
litical  footprints  have  sunk  so  deep  into  the  soil  — 
their  tracks  run  towards  bondage.  Where  they 
marched  slavery  followed. 

Our  Presidents  must  all  be  pro-slavery  men.  John 
Quincy  Adams  even,  the  only  American  thus  far  who 
inherited  a  great  name  and  left  it  greater,  as  Presi 
dent,  did  nothing  against  slavery  that  has  yet  come  to 


170  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

light;  said  nothing  against  it  that  has  yet  come  to 
light.  The  brave  old  man,  in  his  latter  days,  stirred 
up  the  nobler  nature  that  was  in  him,  and  amply  re 
paid  for  the  sins  of  omission.  But  the  other  Presi 
dents,  a  long  line  of  them  —  Jackson,  Van  Buren, 
Harrison  (they  are  growing  smaller  and  smaller),  Ty 
ler,  Polk,  Taylor  (who  was  a  brave,  earnest  man,  and 
had  a  great  deal  of  good  in  him  —  and  now  they  begin 
to  grow  very  rapidly  small),  Fillmore,  Pierce  —  can 
you  find  a  single  breath  of  freedom  in  these  men  ?  Not 
one.  The  last  slave  President,  though  his  cradle  was 
rocked  in  New  Hampshire,  is  Texan  in  his  latitude. 
He  swears  allegiance  to  slavery  in  his  inaugural  ad 
dress. 

Is  there  a  breath  of  freedom  in  the  great  Federal 
officers  —  secretaries,  judges?  Ask  the  Cabinet;  ask 
the  Supreme  Court ;  the  Federal  officers ;  they  are,  al 
most  without  exception,  servants  of  slavery.  Out  of 
forty  thousand  government  officers  to-day,  I  think 
thirty-seven  thousand  are  strongly  pro-slavery ;  and 
of  the  three  thousand  who  I  think  are  at  heart  anti- 
slavery,  we  have  yet  to  listen  long  before  we  shall  hear 
the  first  anti-slavery  lisp.  I  have  been  listening  ever 
since  the  4th  of  March,  1853,  and  have  not  heard  a 
word  yet.  In  the  English  Cabinet  there  are  various 
opinions  on  important  matters ;  in  America,  they  "  are 
a  unit,"  a  unit  of  bondage.  In  Russia,  a  revolution 
ary  man  sometimes  holds  a  high  post  and  does  great 
service;  in  America,  none  but  the  servant  of  slavery 
is  fit  for  the  political  functions  of  democracy.  I  be 
lieve,  in  the  United  States,  there  is  not  a  single  editor 
holding  a  government  office  who  says  anything  against 
the  Nebraska  Bill.  They  do  not  dare.  Did  a  Whig 
office-holder  oppose  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  or  its  en- 


AN  ANTI-SLAVERY  ADDRESS          171 

forcement?  I  never  heard  of  one.  The  day  of  of 
fice,  like  the  day  of  bondage,  "  takes  off  half  a  man's 
manhood,"  and  the  other  half  it  hides !  A  little  while 
ago,  an  anti-slavery  man  in  Massachusetts  carried  a 
remonstrance  against  the  Nebraska  Bill,  signed  by  al 
most  every  voter  in  his  town,  to  the  postmaster,  and 
asked  him,  "Will  you  sign  it?"  "No,  I  shan't," 
said  he.  "Why  not?"  Before  he  answered,  one  of 
his  neighbors  said,  "  Well,  I  would  not  sign  it  if  I 
was  he."  "Why  not?"  said  the  man.  "Because 
if  he  did,  he  would  be  turned  out  of  office  in  twenty- 
four  hours ;  the  next  telegraph  would  do  the  business 
for  him."  "  Well,"  said  my  friend,  "  if  I  held  an  of 
fice  on  that  condition,  I  would  get  the  biggest  brass 
dog-collar  I  could  find  and  put  it  around  my  neck, 
and  have  my  owner's  name  on  it,  in  great,  large  let 
ters,  so  that  everybody  might  see  whose  dog  I  was." 

In  the  individual  States,  I  think  there  is  not  a  single 
anti-slavery  government.  I  believe  Vermont  is  the 
only  State  that  has  an  anti-slavery  Supreme  Court; 
and  that  is  the  only  State  which  has  not  much  con 
cern  in  commerce  or  manufactures.  It  is  a  State  of 
farmers. 

For  a  long  time  the  American  Government  has  been 
controlled  by  slavery.  There  is  an  old  story  told  by 
the  Hebrew  rabbis,  that  before  the  flood  there  was  an 
enormous  giant,  called  Gog.  After  the  flood  had  got 
into  full  tide  of  successful  experiment,  and  everybody 
was  drowned  except  those  taken  into  the  ark,  Gog 
came  striding  along  after  Noah,  feeling  his  way  with 
a  cane  as  long  as  a  mast  of  the  "  Great  Republic." 
The  waters  had  only  just  come  up  to  his  girdle.  It 
was  then  over  the  hill  tops,  and  was  still  rising  —  rain 
ing  night  and  day.  The  giant  hailed  the  Patriarch. 


172  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

Noah  put  his  head  out  of  the  window  and  said,  "  Who 
is  there?  "  "  It  is  I,"  said  Gog.  "  Take  us  in ;  it  is 
wet  outside !  "  "  No,"  said  Noah,  "  you're  too  big ; 
no  room.  Besides,  you're  a  bad  character.  You 
would  be  a  very  dangerous  passenger,  and  would  make 
trouble  in  the  ark ;  I  shall  not  take  you ; "  and  he 
clapped  to  the  window.  "  Go  to  thunder,"  said  Gog : 
"  I  will  ride  after  all ;  "  and  he  strode  after  him,  wad 
ing  through  the  waters  and  keeping  out  of  the  deep 
holes,  and  mounting  on  the  top  of  tJie  ark,  with  one 
leg  over  the  larboard  and  the  other  over  the  star 
board  side,  steered  it  just  as  he  pleased,  and  made  it 
rough  weather  inside.  Now,  in  making  the  Constitu 
tion,  we  did  not  care  to  take  in  slavery  in  express 
terms.  It  looked  ugly.  So  it  got  on  the  top  astride, 
and  it  steers  us  just  where  it  pleases. 

The  slave  power  controls  the  President,  and  fills  all 
the  offices.  Out  of  the  twelve  elected  Presidents,  four 
have  been  from  the  North,  and  the  last  of  them  might 
just  as  well  have  been  taken  by  lot  at  the  South  any 
where.  Mr.  Pierce,  I  just  now  said,  was  Texan  in 
his  latitude.  His  conscience  is  Texan ;  only  his  cradle 
was  New  Hampshire.  Of  the  nine  judges  of  the  Su 
preme  Court,  five  are  from  the  slave  States  —  the 
chief  justice  from  the  slave  States.  A  part  of  the 
Cabinet  are  from  the  North  —  I  forget  how  many ; 
it  makes  no  difference;  they  are  all  of  the  same  South 
ern  complexion ;  and  the  man  that  was  taken  from  the 
farthest  north,  Caleb  Gushing,  I  think  is  most  South 
ern  in  his  slavery  proclivities. 

The  nation  fluctuates  in  its  policy.  Now  it  is  for 
internal  improvements:  then  it  is  against  them.  Now 
it  is  for  a  bank ;  then  a  bank  is  unconstitutional.  Now 
it  is  for  free-trade ;  then  for  protection ;  then  for 


AN  ANTI-SLAVERY  ADDRESS 

free-trade  again  —  protection  is  altogether  unconsti 
tutional.  Mr.  Calhoun  turns  clear  round.  When  the 
North  went  for  free-trade  and  grew  rich  by  that,  Cal 
houn  did  not  like  it,  and  wanted  protection.  He 
thought  the  South  would  grow  rich  by  it.  And  when 
the  North  grew  rich  under  protection,  he  turned  round 
to  free-trade  again.  Now  the  nation  is  for  giving 
away  the  public  lands.  Sixteen  millions  of  acres  of 
"  swamp  lands  "  are  given,  within  seven  years,  to 
States.  Twenty-five  millions  of  the  public  lands  are 
given  away  gratuitously  to  soldiers  —  six  millions  in 
a  single  year.  Forty-seven  millions  of  the  public 
lands  to  seventeen  States  for  schools,  colleges,  etc. 
Forty-seven  thousand  acres  for  deaf  and  dumb 
asylums.  And  look;  just  now  it  changes  its  policy, 
and  Mr.  Pierce  is  opposed  to  granting  any  land  — 
it  is  not  constitutional  —  to  Miss  Dix,  to  make  the 
insane  sober,  and  bring  them  to  their  right  minds. 
He  may  have  a  private  reason  for  keeping  the  people 
in  a  state  of  craziness,  for  aught  I  know. 

The  public  policy  changes  in  these  matters.  It 
never  changes  in  respect  to  slavery.  Be  the  Whigs  in 
power,  slavery  is  Whig;  be  the  Democrats,  it  is  Demo 
cratic.  At  first,  slavery  was  an  exceptional  measure, 
and  men  tried  to  apologize  for  it  and  excuse  it.  Now 
it  is  a  normal  principle,  and  the  institution  must  be 
defended  and  enlarged. 

Commercial  men  must  be  moved,  I  suppose,  by  com 
mercial  arguments.  Look,  then,  at  this  statement  of 
facts. 

Slavery  is  unprofitable  for  the  people.  America  is 
poorer  for  slavery.  I  am  speaking  in  the  great  focus 
of  American  commerce  *  —  the  third  city  for  popula- 

*  New  York  City. 


174  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

tion  and  riches  in  the  Christian  world.  Let  me,  there 
fore,  talk  about  dollars.  America,  I  say,  is  poorer 
for  slavery.  If  the  three  and  a  quarter  millions  of 
slaves  were  freemen,  how  much  richer  would  she  be? 
There  is  no  State  in  the  Union  but  it  is  poorer  for 
slavery.  It  is  a  bad  tool  to  work  with.  The  edu 
cated  freeman  is  the  best  working-power  in  the  world. 

Compare  the  North  with  the  South,  and  see  what  a 
difference  in  riches,  comfort,  education.  See  the  su 
periority  of  the  North.  But  the  South  started  with 
every  advantage  of  nature  —  soil,  climate,  everything. 
To  make  the  case  plainer,  let  me  take  two  great  States, 
Virginia  and  New  York.  Compare  them  together. 

In  geographical  position  Virginia  has  every  ad 
vantage  over  New  York.  Almost  everything  that  will 
grow  in  the  Union  will  grow  somewhere  in  Virginia, 
save  sugar.  The  largest  ships  can  sail  up  the  Po 
tomac  a  hundred  miles,  as  far  as  Alexandria.  The 
Rappahannock,  York,  James,  are  all  navigable  riv 
ers.  The  Ohio  flanks  Virginia  more  than  three  hun 
dred  miles.  There  is  sixty  miles  of  navigation  on  the 
Kanawha.  New  York  has  a  single  navigable  stream 
with  not  a  hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  navigation,  from 
Troy  to  the  ocean.  Virginia  has  the  best  harbor  on 
the  Atlantic  coast,  and  several  smaller  ones.  Your 
State  has  but  a  single  maritime  port.  Virginia 
abounds  in  water-power  for  mills.  I  stood  once  on  the 
steps  of  the  Capitol  at  Washington,  and  within  six 
miles  of  me,  under  my  eyes,  there  was  a  water-power 
greater  than  that  which  turns  the  mills  of  Lawrence, 
Lowell,  and  Manchester,  all  put  together.  In  1836 
it  did  not  turn  a  wheel ;  now,  I  am  told,  it  drives  a 
grist  mill.  No  State  is  so  rich  in  water-power.  The  Al- 
leghenies  are  a  great  watershed,  and  at  the  eaves  the 


AN  ANTI-SLAVERY  ADDRESS          175 

streams  rush  forward  as  if  impatient  to  turn  mills. 
New  York  has  got  very  little  water-power  of  this  sort. 
Virginia  is  full  of  minerals  —  coal,  iron,  lead,  cop 
per,  salt.  Her  agricultural  resources  are  immense. 
What  timber  clothes  her  mountains!  what  a  soil  for 
Indian  corn,  wheat,  tobacco,  rice !  even  cotton  grows 
in  the  southern  part.  Washington  said  the  central 
counties  of  Virginia  were  the  best  land  in  the  United 
States.  Daniel  Webster,  reporting  to  Virginians  of 
his  European  tour,  said  he  saw  no  lands  in  Europe 
so  good  as  the  valley  of  the  Shenandoah.  Virginia 
is  rich  in  mountain  pastures  favorable  to  sheep  and 
horned  cattle.  Nature  gives  Virginia  everything  that 
can  be  asked  of  nature.  What  a  position  for  agricul 
ture,  manufactures,  mining,  commerce!  Norfolk  is  a 
hundred  miles  nearer  Chicago  than  New  York  is,  but 
she  has  no  intercourse  with  Chicago.  It  is  three  hun 
dred  miles  nearer  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio ;  but  if 
a  Norfolk  man  wants  to  go  to  St.  Louis,  I  believe  his 
quickest  way  lies  through  New  York.  It  is  not  a 
day's  sail  farther  from  Liverpool;  it  is  nearer  to  the 
Mediterranean  and  South  American  points.  But  what 
is  Norfolk,  with  her  23,000  tons  of  shipping  and  her 
14,000  population?  What  is  Richmond,  with  her  27,- 
000  men  —  10,000  of  them  slaves?  Nay,  what  is  Vir 
ginia  itself,  the  very  oldest  State?  Let  me  cipher 
out  some  numerical  details. 

In  1790  she  had  748,000  inhabitants ;  now  she  has 
1,421,000.  She  has  not  doubled  in  sixty  years.  In 
1790  New  York  had  340,000 ;  now  she  has  3,048,000. 
She  has  multiplied  her  population  almost  ten  times. 
In  Virginia,  in  1850,  there  were  only  452,000  more 
freemen  than  sixty  years  before;  in  New  York,  there 
were  2,724,000  more  -freemen  than  there  were  in  1790. 


176  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

There  are  only  165,000  dwellings  in  Virginia;  463,- 
000  in  New  York.  Then  the  Virginia  farms  were 
worth  $216,000,000,  yours  $554,000,000;  Virginia  is 
wholly  agricultural,  while  you  are  also  manufacturing 
and  commercial.  Her  farm  tools  were  worth  $7,000,- 
000;  yours  $22,000,000.  Her  cattle  $33,000,000; 
yours  $73,000,000.  The  orchard  products  of  Virginia 
were  worth  $177,000 ;  of  New  York  $1,762,000.  Vir 
ginia  had  478  miles  of  railroad;  you  had  1,826  miles. 
She  had  74,000  tons  of  shipping;  you  had  942,000. 
The  value  of  her  cotton  factories  was  not  two  mil 
lions ;  the  value  of  yours  was  four  and  a  quarter  mil 
lions.  She  produced  $841,000  worth  of  woolen  goods  ; 
you  produced  $7,030,000.  Her  furnaces  produced 
two  millions  and  a  half ;  yours  produced  eight  millions. 
Her  tanneries  $894,000;  yours  $9,804,000.  All  of 
her  manufactures  together  were  not  worth  $9,000,000 ; 
those  of  the  city  of  Xew  York  alone  have  an  annual 
value  of  $105,000,000.  Her  attendance  at  school 
was  109,000;  yours  693,000. 

But  there  is  one  thing  in  which  Virginia  is  far  in 
advance  of  you.  Of  native  Virginians,  over  twenty 
years  old,  who  could  not  read  the  name  of  "  Christ" 
nor  the  word  "  God  "  -  free  white  people  who  can 
not  spell  "  democrat  "  —  there  were  87,383.  That 
is,  out  of  every  five  hundred  free  white  persons,  there 
were  one  hundred  and  five  that  could  not  spell 
"  Pierce."  In  New  York  there  are  30,670  —  no  more ; 
so  that,  out  of  five  hundred  persons,  there  are  six 
that  cannot  read  and  write.  Virginia  is  advancing 
rapidly  upon  you  in  this  respect.  In  1840  she  had 
only  58,787  adults  that  could  not  read  and  write; 
now  28,596  more.  So,  you  see,  she  is  advancing. 

Virginia  has  87  newspapers;  New  York  428.     The 


AN  ANTI-SLAVERY  ADDRESS          177 

Virginia  newspaper  circulation  is  89,000;  New  York 
newspaper  circulation  is  1,622,000.  The  Tribune  — 
and  I  think  it  is  the  best  paper  there  is  in  the  world 
—  has  an  aggregate  circulation  of  110,000;  20,000 
more  than  all  the  newspapers  of  Virginia !  Virginia 
prints  every  year  9,000,000  of  copies  of  newspapers  all 
told.  New  York  prints  115,000,000.  The  New  York 
Tribune  prints  15,000,000  —  more  than  the  whole 
State  of  Virginia  put  together.  Such  is  the  state  of 
things  counted  in  the  gross,  but  I  think  the  New  York 
quality  is  as  much  better  as  the  quantity  is  more. 

Virginia  has  88,000  books  in  libraries  not  private. 
New  York  1,760,000;  a  little  more  than  twenty  times 
as  much.  Virginia  exports  $3,500,000;  New  York 
$53,000,000.  Virginia  imports  $426,000 ;  New  York 
$111,000,000.  But  in  one  article  of  export  she  is  in 
advance  of  you  —  she  sends  to  the  man-markets  of 
the  South  about  $10,000,000  or  $12,000,000  worth  of 
her  children  every  year;  exports  slaves!  The  value 
of  all  the  property  real  and  personal  in  the  State  of 
Virginia,  including  slaves,  is  $430,701,882;  of  New 
York  $1,080,000,000,  without  estimating  the  value  of 
the  men  who  own  it.  Virginia  has  got  472,528  slaves. 
I  will  estimate  them  at  less  than  the  market  value  — 
at  $400  each;  they  come  to  $189,000,000.  I  subtract 
the  value  of  the  working  people  of  Virginia,  and  she 
is  worth  not  quite  $242,000,000.  Now,  the  State  of 
New  York  might  buy  up  all  the  property  of  Virginia, 
including  the  slaves,  and  still  have  $649,000,000  left; 
might  buy  up  all  the  real  and  personal  property  of 
Virginia,  except  the  working-men,  and  have  $838,000,- 
000  left.  The  North  appropriates  the  rivers,  the 
mines,  the  harbors,  the  forests,  fire  and  water  —  the 
South  kidnaps  men.  Behold  the  commercial  result. 
XIII— 12 


178  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

Virginia  is  a  great  State  —  very  great !  You  don't 
know  how  great  it  is.  I  will  read  it  to  you  presently. 
Things  are  great  and  small  by  comparison.  I  am 
quoting  again  from  the  Richmond  Examiner  (March 
24th,  1854.)  "Virginia  in  this  confederacy  is  the 
impersonation  of  the  well-born,  well-educated,  well- 
bred  aristocrat "  [well-born,  while  the  children  of 
Jefferson  and  the  only  children  of  Madison  are  a 
"  connecting  link  between  the  human  and  brute  cre 
ation  ;  "  well-educated,  with  21  per  cent,  of  her  white 
adults  unable  to  read  the  vote  they  cast  against  the  in 
alienable  rights  of  men ;  well-bred^  when  her  great 
product  for  exportation  is  —  the  children  of  her  own 
loins!  Slavery  is  a  "  patriarchal  institution ;  "  the 
Democratic  Abrahams  of  Virginia  do  not  offer  up 
their  Isaacs  to  the  Lord;  that  wrould  be  a  sacrifice; 
they  only  sell  them.  So]  ;  "  she  looks  down  from  her 
elevated  pedestal  upon  her  parvenu,  ignorant,  men 
dacious  Yankee  vilifiers,  as  coldly  and  calmly  as  a 
marble  statue;  occasionally  she  condescends  to  recog 
nize  the  existence  of  her  adversaries  at  the  very  mo 
ment  when  she  crushes  them.  But  she  does  it  with 
out  anger,  and  with  no  more  hatred  of  them  than 
the  gardener  feels  towards  the  insects  wrhich  he  finds 
it  necessary  occasionally  to  destroy."  "  She  feels  that 
she  is  the  sword  and  buckler  of  the  South  —  that  it 
is  her  influence  which  has  so  frequently  defeated  and 
driven  back  in  dismay  the  abolition  party  when  flushed 
by  temporary  victory.  Brave,  calm  and  determined, 
wise  in  times  of  excitement,  always  true  to  the  slave 
power,  never  rash  or  indiscreet,  the  waves  of  North 
ern  fanaticism  burst  harmless  at  her  feet ;  the  contempt 
for  her  Northern  revilers  is  the  result  of  her  conscious 
ness  of  her  influence  in  the  political  world.  She  makes 


AN  ANTI-SLAVERY  ADDRESS          179 

and  unmakes  Presidents;  she  dictates  her  terms  to  the 
Northern  Democracy,  and  they  obey  her.  She  selects 
from  among  the  faithful  of  the  North  a  man  upon 
whom  she  can  rely,  and  she  makes  him  President." 
[This  latter  is  true !  The  opinion  of  Richmond  is  of 
more  might  than  the  opinion  of  New  York.  Slavery, 
the  political  Gog  on  the  outside,  steers  the  ark  of  com 
mercial  Noah,  and  makes  it  rough  or  smooth  weather 
inside,  just  as  he  likes.] 

"  In  the  early  days  of  the  Republic,  the  superior 
sagacity  of  her  statesmen  enabled  them  to  rivet  so 
firmly  the  shackles  of  the  slave,  that  the  abolitionists 
will  never  be  able  to  unloose  them.93 

"  A  wide  and  impassible  gulf  separates  the  noble, 
proud,  glorious  Old  Dominion  from  her  Northern  tra- 
ducers  ;  the  mastiff  does  not  willingly  assail  the  skunk !  " 
"  When  Virginia  takes  the  field,  she  crushes  the  whole 
abolition  party ;  her  slaughter  is  wholesale,  and  a  hun 
dred  thousand  abolitionists  are  cut  down  when  she  is 
sues  her  commands ! " 

Again  (April  4th,  1854),  "A  hundred  Southern 
gentlemen,  armed  with  riding-whips,  could  chase  an 
army  of  invading  abolitionists  into  the  Atlantic." 

In  reference  to  the  project  at  the  North  of  sending 
Northern  abolitionists  along  with  the  Northern  slave- 
breeders  to  Nebraska,  to  put  freedom  into  the  soil 
before  slavery  gets  there,  the  Examiner  says  — "  Why, 
a  hundred  wild,  lank,  half-horse,  half -alligator  Mis 
souri  and  Arkansas  emigrants  would,  if  so  disposed, 
chase  out  of  Nebraska  and  Kansas  all  the  abolition 
ists  who  have  figured  for  the  last  twenty  years  at  anti- 
slavery  meetings." 

/T  say  slavery  is  not  profitable  for  the  nation  nor  for 
/a  State,  but  it  is  profitable  for  slave-owners.  You  will 


180  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

(see  why.  If  the  Northern  capitalist  owned  the  weav 
ers  and  spinners  at  Lowell  and  Lawrence,  New  England 
would  be  poorer,  and  the  working-men  would  not  be 
so  well  off,  or  so  well  educated;  but  Undershot  and 
Overshot,  Turbine  Brothers,  Spindle  and  Co.,  would  be 
richer,  and  would  get  larger  dividends.  Land  monop 
oly  in  England  enfeebles  the  island,  but  enriches  the 
aristocracy.  How  poor,  ill-fed,  and  ill-clad  were  the 
French  peasants  before  the  Revolution;  how  costly 
was  the  chateau  of  the  noble.  Monopoly  was  bad  for 
the  people ;  profitable  for  the  rich  men.  How  poor  are 
the  people  in  Italy ;  how  rich  the  cardinals  and  the 
pope !  Oppression  enriches  the  oppressor ;  it  makes 
poorer  the  downtrodden.  Piracy  is  very  costly  to  the 
merchant  and  to  mankind;  but  it  enriches  the  pirate. 
Slavery  impoverishes  Virginia,  but  it  enriches  the  mas- 

V4er.  It  gives  him  money  —  commercial  power  —  of 
fice  —  political  power.  The  slave-holder  is  drawn  in 
his  triumphal  chariot  by  two  chattels :  one,  the  poor 
black  man,  whom  he  "  owns  legally " ;  the  other  is 
the  poor  white  man,  whom  he  owns  morally,  and  har 
nesses  to  his  chariot.  Hence  these  American  lords  of 
the  lash  cleave  to  this  institution  —  they  love  it.  To 
the  slaveholders,  slavery  is  money  and  power ! 

Now  the  South,  weak  in  numbers,  feeble  in  respect  to 
money,  has  continually  directed  the  politics  of  Amer 
ica  just  as  she  would.  Her  ignorance  and  poverty 
were  more  efficacious  than  the  Northern  riches  and 
education.  She  is  in  earnest  for  slavery ;  the  North 
not  in  earnest  for  freedom!  only  earnest  for  money. 
So  long  as  the  Federal  Government  grinds  the  axes  of 
the  Northern  merchant,  he  cares  little  whether  the  stone 
is  turned  by  the  free  man's  labor  or  the  slave's.  Hence, 
the  great  centers  of  Northern  commerce  and  manu- 


AN  ANTI-SLAVERY  ADDRESS          181 

factures  are  also  the  great  centers  of  pro-slavery  pol 
itics.  Philadelphia,  New  York,  Boston,  Buffalo,  Cin- 
cinnati,  they  all  liked  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill ;  all  took 
pains  to  seize  the  fugitive  who  fled  to  a  Northern  altar 
for  freedom;  nay,  the  most  conspicuous  clergymen  in 
those  cities  became  apostles  of  kidnapping;  their 
churches  were  of  commerce,  not  Christianity.  The 
North  yielded  to  that  last  most  insolent  demand.  Un 
der  the  influence  of  that  excitement  she  chose  the  pres 
ent  administration,  the  present  Congress.  Now  see 
the  result !  Whig  and  Democrat  meet  on  the  same 
platform  at  Baltimore.  It  was  the  platform  of  slav 
ery.  Both  candidates  gave  in  their  allegiance  to  the 
same  measure  —  Scott  and  Pierce  —  it  was  the  meas 
ure  which  compromised  the  first  principles  of  the  Amer 
ican  Independence  —  they  were  sworn  on  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill.  Whig  and  Democrat  knew  no  "  higher 
law,"  only  the  statute  of  slaveholders.  Conscience 
bent  down  before  the  Constitution.  What  sort  of  a 
government  can  you  expect  from  such  conduct?  What 
representatives?  Just  what  you  have  got.  Sow  the 
wind,  will  you?  then  reap  the  whirlwind.  Mr.  Pierce 
said  in  his  inaugural,  "  I  believe  that  involuntary  servi 
tude  is  recognized  by  the  -  Constitution ;  "  "  that  it 
stands  like  any  other  admitted  right.  I  hold  that  the 
compromise  measures  (i.  e.,  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill) 
are  strictly  constitutional,  and  to  be  unhesitatingly 
carried  mto  effect."  The  laws  to  secure  the  master's 
right  to  capture  a  man  in  the  free  States  "  should  be 
respected  and  obeyed,  not  with  a  reluctance  encour 
aged  by  abstract  opinions  as  to  their  propriety  in  a 
different  state  of  society,  but  cheerfully  and  according 
to  the  decision  of  the  tribunal  to  which  their  exposition 
belongs."  These  words  were  historical  —  reminis- 


182  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

cences  of  the  time  when  "  no  higher  law  "  was  the 
watchword  of  the  American  State  and  the  American 
Church ;  they  were  prophetic  —  ominous  of  what  we 
see  to-day. 

I.  Here  is  the  Gadsden  Treaty  which  has  been  ne 
gotiated.     How  bad  it  is  I  cannot  say ;  only  this.     If 
I  am  rightly  informed,  a  tract  of  39,000,000  acres, 
larger  than  all  Virginia,  is  "  re-annexed  "  to  the  slave 
soil  which  the  "  flag  of  our  Union  "   already   waves 
over.     The  whole  thing,  when  it  is  fairly  understood 
by  the  public,  I  think  will  be  seen  to  be  a  more  in 
iquitous  matter  than  this  Nebraska  wickedness. 

II.  Then  comes  the  Nebraska  Bill,  yet  to  be  con 
summated.     While  we  are  sitting  here  in  cold  debate, 
it  may  be  the  measure  has  passed.     From  the  begin 
ning  I  have  never  had  any  doubts  that  it  would  pass; 
if  it   could  not   be   put   through  this  session  —  as   I 
thought  it  would  —  I  felt  sure  that  before  this  Con 
gress  goes  out  of  office,  Nebraska  would  be  slave  soil. 
You  see  what  a  majority  there  was  in  the  Senate;  you 
see  what  a  majority  there  is  in  the  House.     I  know 
there    is    an    opposition  — -  and    most   brilliantly    con 
ducted,  too,  by  the  few  faithful  men;  but  see  this: 
the  administration  has  yet  three  years  to  run.     There 
is  an  annual  income  of  sixty  millions  of  dollars.    There 
are  forty  thousand  offices  to  be  disposed  of  —  four 
thousand  very  valuable.     And  do  you  think  that  a  Dem 
ocratic  administration,  with  that  amount  of  offices,  of 
money  and  time,  cannot  buy  up  Northern  doughfaces 
enough  to  carry  any  measure  it  pleases?     I  know  bet 
ter.     Once  I  thought  that  Texas  could  not  be  annexed. 
It  was  done.     I  learned  wisdom  from  that.     I  have 
taken  my  counsel  of  my  fears.     I  have  not  seen- any 
barrier  on  which  the  North  would  rally  that  we  have 


AN  ANTI-SLAVERY  ADDRESS          183 

come  to  yet.  There  are  some  things  behind  us.  John 
Randolph  said,  years  ago,  "  We  will  drive  you  from 
pillar  to  post,  back,  back,  back."  He  has  been  as  good 
as  his  word.  We  have  been  driven  "  back,  back, 
back."  But  we  cannot  be  driven  much  farther.  There 
is  a  spot  where  we  shall  stop.  I  am  afraid  we  have 
not  come  to  it  yet.  I  will  say  no  more  about  it  just 
now  —  because,  not  many  weeks  ago,  I  stood  here  and 
said  a  great  deal.  You  have  listened  to  me  when  I 
was  feeble  and  hollow-voiced ;  I  will  not  tax  your  pa 
tience  now,  for  in  this,  as  in  a  celebrated  feast  of  old, 
they  have  "kept  the  good  wine  until  now!"  (allud 
ing  to  Garrison  and  Phillips,  who  were  to  follow). 

If  the  Nebraska  Bill  is  defeated,  I  shall  rejoice  that 
iniquity  is  foiled  once  more.     But  if  it  become  a  law  - 
there  are  some  things  which  seem  probable. 

1.  On  the  4th  of  March,  1856,  the  Democrats  will 
have  leave  to  withdraw  from  office. 

2.  Every  Northern  man  who  has  taken  a  prominent 
stand  in  behalf  of  slavery  will  be  politically  ruined. 
You  know  what  befell  the  Northern  politicians  who 
voted   for  the   Missouri   Compromise ;   a   similar   fate 
hangs  over  the  men  who  enslave  Nebraska.     Already, 
Mr.    Everett    is,    theologically    speaking,    among    the 
lost ;  and,  of  all  the  three  thousand  New  England  min 
isters  whose  petition  he  dared  not  present,  not  one  will 
ever  pray  for  his  political  salvation. 

Pause  with  me  and  drop  a  tear  over  the  ruin  of 
Edward  Everett,  a  man  of  large  talents  and  commen 
surate  industry,  very  learned,  the  most  scholarly  man, 
perhaps,  in  the  country,  with  a  persuasive  beauty  of 
speech  only  equaled  by  this  American  (Mr.  Phillips), 
who  surpasses  him ;  he  has  had  a  long  career  of  public 
service,  public  honor  —  clergyman,  professor,  editor, 


184  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

representative,  governor,  ambassador,  president  of 
Harvard  College,  alike  the  ornament  as  the  auxiliary 
of  many  a  learned  society  —  he  yet  comes  to  such  an 
end. 

"  This  is  the  state  of  man :  to-day,  he  puts  forth 
The  tender  leaves  of  hope;  to-morrow,  blossoms, 
And  bears  his  blushing  honors  thick  upon  him; 
The  third  day  comes  a  frost,  Nebraska's  frost; 
And,  when  he  thinks,  good  easy  man,  full  surely, 
His  greatness  is  a-ripening,  nips  his  root, 
And  then  he  falls ." 

"O,  how  wretched 

Is  that  poor  man  that  hangs  on  public  favors! 
There  is  betwixt  that  smile  he  would  aspire  to, 
That  sweet  aspect  of  voters,  and  their  ruin, 
More  pangs  and  fears  than  wars  or  women  have; 
And  when  he  falls,  he  falls  like  Lucifer, 
Never  to  hope  again ! " 

Mr.  Douglas  also  is  finished ;  the  success  of  his 
measure  is  his  own  defeat.  Mr.  Pierce  has  three  short 
years  to  serve;  then  there  will  be  one  more  ex-Presi 
dent  —  ranking  with  Tyler  and  Fillmore.  Mr.  Seward 
need  not  agitate, 

"Let  it  work, 


For  'tis  the  sport  to  have  the  engineer 
Hoist  with  his  own  petard." 

III.  The  next  thing  is  the  enslavement  of  Cuba. 
That  is  a  very  serious  matter.  It  has  been  desired  a 
long  time.  Lopez,  a  Spanish  filibuster,  undertook  it 
and  was  legally  put  to  death.  I  am  not  an  advocate 
for  the  garrote,  but  I  think,  all  things  taken  into  con 
sideration,  that  he  did  not  meet  with  a  very  inadequate 
mode  of  death:  and  I  believe  that  is  the  general  opin 
ion,  not  only  in  Cuba,  but  in  the  United  States.  But 
Young  America  is  not  content  with  that.  Mr.  Dean, 


AN  ANTI-SLAVERY  ADDRESS          185 

a  little  while  ago,  in  the  House,  proposed  to  repeal  the 
neutrality  laws  —  to  set  filibusterism  on  its  legs  again : 
You  remember  the  President's  message  about  the 
"  Black  Warrior  " —  how  black-warrior  like  it  was  ; 
and  then  comes  the  "  unanimous  resolution  "  of  the 
Louisiana  legislature  asking  the  United  States  to  in 
terfere  and  declare  war,  in  case  Cuba  should  undertake 
to  emancipate  her  slaves.  Senator  Slidell's  speech  is 
still  tingling  in  our  ears,  asking  the  government  to  re 
peal  the  neutrality  laws  and  allow  every  pirate  who 
pleases,  to  land  in  Cuba  and  burn  and  destroy.  You 
know  Mr.  Soule's  conduct  in  Madrid.  It  is  rumored 
that  he  has  been  authorized  to  offer  $250,000,000  for 
Cuba.  The  sum  is  enormous;  but,  when  you  consider 
the  character  of  this  administration  and  the  inaugural 
of  President  Pierce,  the  unscrupulous  abuse  made  of 
public  money,  I  do  not  think  it  is  a  very  extraordinary 
supposition. 

But  this  matter  of  getting  possession  of  Cuba  is 
something  dangerous  as  well  as  difficult.  There  are 
three  conceivable  ways  of  getting  it :  one  is  by  buying, 
and  that  I  take  it  is  wholly  out  of  the  question.  If 
I  am  rightly  informed,  there  is  a  certain  Spanish  debt 
owing  to  Englishmen,  and  that  Cuba  is  somehow 
pledged  as  a  sort  of  collateral  security  for  the  Spanish 
bonds.  I  take  it  for  granted  that  Cuba  is  not  to  be 
bought  for  many  years  without  the  interference  of 
England,  and  depend  upon  it  England  will  not  allow  it 
to  be  sold  for  the  establishment  of  slavery;  for  I  think 
it  is  pretty  well  understood  by  politicians  that  there  is 
a  regular  agreement  entered  into  between  Spain  on 
one  side  and  England  on  the  other,  that  at  a  certain 
period  within  twenty-five  years  every  slave  in  Cuba 
shall  be  set  free.  I  believe  this  is  known  to  men  some- 


186  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

what  versed  in  the  secret  history  of  the  two  cabinets 
of  England  and  of  Spain.  England  has  the  same 
wish  for  land  which  fires  our  Anglo-Saxon  blood.  She 
has  islands  in  the  West  Indies ;  the  Morro  in  Cuba  is 
only  100  miles  from  Jamaica.  If  we  get  Cuba  for 
slavery,  we  shall  next  want  the  British  West  Indies  for 
the  same  institution.  Cuba  filled  with  filibusters  would 
be  a  dangerous  neighbor. 

Then  there  are  two  other  ways :  one  is  by  filibus- 
terism,  and  that  Mr.  Slidell  and  Mr.  Dean  want  to 
try;  the  other  is  by  open  war.  Now,  filibusterism 
will  lead  to  open  war,  so  I  will  consider  only  this  issue. 

I  know  that  Americans  will  fight  more  desperately, 
perhaps,  on  land  or  sea,  than  any  other  people.  But 
fighting  is  an  ugly  business,  especially  with  such  an 
tagonists  as  we  shall  have  in  this  case.  It  is  a  mat 
ter  well  understood  that  the  captain-general  of  Cuba 
has  a  paper  in  his  possession  authorizing  him  discre- 
tionally  to  free  the  slaves  and  put  arms  in  their  hands 
whenever  it  is  thought  necessary.  It  is  rather  difficult 
to  get  at  the  exact  statistics  of  Cuba.  There  has  been 
no  census  since  1842,  I  think,  when  the  population 
was  estimated  at  a  million.  I  will  reckon  it  now  at 
1,300,000  —  700,000  blacks,  and  600,000  whites.  Of 
the  700,000  blacks,  half  a  million  are  slaves  and 
£00,000  free  men.  Now,  a  black  free  man  in  Cuba 
is  a  very  different  person  from  the  black  free  man  in 
the  United  States.  He  has  rights.  He  is  not  turned 
out  of  the  omnibus  nor  the  meeting  house  nor  the 
graveyard.  He  is  respected  by  the  law;  he  respects 
himself,  and  is  a  formidable  person;  let  the  blacks  be 
furnished  with  arms,  they  are  formidable  foes.  And 
remember  there  are  mountain  fastnesses  in  the  center 
of  the  island ;  that  it  is  as  defensible  as  San  Domingo ; 


AN  ANTI-SLAVERY  ADDRESS          187 

and  it  has  a  very  unhealthy  climate  for  Northern  men. 
The  Spaniard  would  have  great  allies.  The  vomito 
is  there ;  typhoid,  dysentery,  yellow  fever  —  the  worst 
of  all  —  is  there.  A  Northern  army  even  of  filibus 
ters  would  fight  against  the  most  dreadful  odds.  "  The 
Lord  from  on  high,"  as  the  old  Hebrew  would  say, 
would  fight  against  the  Northern  men;  the  pestilence 
that  swept  off  Sennacherib's  host  would  not  respect 
the  filibuster. 

That  is  not  all.  What  sort  of  a  navy  has  Spain? 
One  hundred  and  seventy-nine  ships  of  war!  They 
are  small  mostly,  but  they  carry  over  1,400  cannon 
and  24,000  men  —  15,000  marines  and  9,000  sailors. 
The  United  States  has  seventy-five  ships  of  war ;  2,200 
cannon,  14,000  men  —  large  ships,  heavy  cannon. 
That  is  not  all.  Spaniards  fight  desperately.  A 
Spanish  armada  I  would  not  be  very  much  afraid  of; 
but  Spain  will  issue  letters  of  marque,  and  a  Portu 
guese  or  Spanish  pirate  is  rather  an  uncomfortable 
being  to  meet.  Our  commerce  is  spread  all  over  the 
seas ;  there  is  no  mercantile  marine  so  unprotected  as 
ours.  Our  ships  do  not  carry  muskets,  still  less  can 
non,  since  pirates  have  been  swept  off  the  sea.  Let 
Spain  issue  letters  of  marque,  England  winking  at  it, 
and  Algerine  pirates  from  out  the  Barbary  States  of 
Africa  and  other  pirates  from  the  Brazilian,  Mexican, 
and  the  West  Indian  ports,  would  prowl  about  the 
coast  of  the  Mediterranean  and  over  all  the  bosom  of 
the  Atlantic;  and  then  where  would  be  our  commerce? 
The  South  has  nothing  to  fear  from  that.  She  has 
got  no  shipping.  Yes,  Norfolk  has  23,000  tons. 
The  South  is  not  afraid.  The  North  has  nearly  four 
million  tons  of  shipping.  But  touch  the  commerce  of 
a  Northern  man  and  you  touch  his  heart. 


188  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

England  has  conceded  to  us  as  a  measure  just  what 
we  asked.  We  have  always  declared  "  free  ships  make 
free  goods."  England  said  "  enemies'  goods  make 
enemies'  ships."  Now  she  has  not  affirmed  our  princi 
ple  ;  she  has  assented  to  our  measure.  That  is  all  you 
can  expect  her  to  do.  But,  if  we  repeal  our  neutrality 
laws  and  seek  to  get  Cuba  in  order  to  establish  slavery 
there,  endangering  the  interests  of  England,  and  the 
freedom  of  her  colored  citizens,  depend  upon  it  Eng 
land  will  not  suffer  this  to  be  done  without  herself  in 
terfering.  If  she  is  so  deeply  immersed  in  European 
wars  that  she  cannot  interfere  directly,  she  will  indi 
rectly.  But  I  have  not  thought  that  England  and 
France  are  to  be  much  engaged  in  a  European  war. 
I  suppose  the  intention  of  the  American  Cabinet  is  to 
seize  Cuba  as  soon  as  the  British  and  Russians  are 
fairly  fighting,  thinking  that  England  will  not  inter 
fere.  But  in  "  this  war  of  elder  sons  "  which  now 
goes  on  for  the  dismemberment  of  Turkey,  it  is  not 
so  clear  that  England  will  be  so  deeply  engaged  that 
she  cannot  attend  to  her  domestic  affairs,  or  the  inter 
est  of  her  West  Indies.  I  think  these  powers  are  going 
to  divide  Turkey  between  them,  but  I  do  not  believe 
they  are  going  to  do  much  fighting  there.  If  we  are 
bent  on  seizing  Cuba,  a  long  and  ruinous  fight  is  a 
thing  that  ought  to  enter  into  men's  calculations. 
Now,  let  such  a  naval  warfare  take  place,  and  how 
will  your  insurance  stock  look  in  New  York,  Philadel 
phia,  and  Boston?  How  will  your  merchants  look 
when  reports  come  one  after  another  that  your  ships 
are  carried  in  as  prizes  by  Spain,  or  sunk  on  the  ocean 
after  they  have  been  plundered?  I  speak  in  the  great 
commercial  metropolis  of  America.  I  wish  these 
things  to  be  seriously  considered  by  Northern  men. 


AN  ANTI-SLAVERY  ADDRESS          189 

Though  I  would  not  fear  a  naval  war,  let  the  Northern 
men  look  out  for  their  own  ships.  But  here  is  a  mat 
ter  which  the  South  might  think  of.  In  case  of  for 
eign  war,  the  North  will  not  be  the  battle-field.  An 
invading  army  would  attack  the  South.  Who  would 
defend  it  —  the  local  militia,  the  "  chivalry  "  of  South 
Carolina,  the  "  gentlemen  "  of  Virginia,  who  are  to 
slaughter  100,000  abolitionists  in  a  day?  Let  an 
army  set  foot  on  Southern  soil,  with  a  few  black  regi 
ments;  let  the  commander  offer  freedom  to  all  the 
slaves  and  put  arms  in  their  hands;  let  him  ask  them  to 
burn  houses  and  butcher  men;  and  there  would  be  a 
state  of  things  not  quite  so  pleasant  for  gentlemen  of 
the  South  to  look  at.  "They  that  laughed  at  the 
groveling  worm  and  trod  on  him  may  cry  and  howl 
when  they  see  the  stoop  of  the  flying  and  fiery-mouthed 
dragon !  "  Now,  there  is  only  one  opinion  about  the 
valor  of  President  Pierce.  Like  the  sword  of  Hudi- 
bras,  it  cut  into  itself, 


-"for  lack 


Of  other  stuff  to  hew  and  hack." 

But  would  he  like  to  stand  with  such  a  fire  in  his 
rear?  Set  a  house  on  fire  by  hot  shot,  and  you  don't 
know  how  much  of  it  will  burn  down. 

IV.  Well,  if  Nebraska  is  made  a  slave  territory, 
as  I  suppose  it  will  be,  the  next  thing  is  the  possession 
of  Cuba.  Then  the  war  against  Spain  will  come,  as 
I  think,  inevitably.  But  even  if  we  don't  get  Cuba, 
slavery  must  be  extended  to  other  parts  of  the  Union. 
This  may  be  done  judicially  by  the  Supreme  Court  — 
one  of  the  powerful  agents  to  destroy  local  self-gov 
ernment  and  legalize  centralization ;  or  legislatively  by 
Congress.  Already  slavery  is  established  in  Califor- 


190  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

nia.  An  attempt,  you  know,  was  made  to  establish  it 
in  Illinois.  Senator  Toombs,  the  other  day,  boasted 
to  John  P.  Hale,  that  it  would  "  not  be  long  before 
the  slaveholder  will  sit  down  at  the  foot  of  Bunker 
Hill  monument  with  his  slaves."  You  and  I  may  live 
to  see  it  —  at  least  to  see  the  attempt  made.  A  writer 
in  a  prominent  Southern  journal,  the  Charleston  Courier 
(of  March  16,  1854),  declares  that  "domestic  slav 
ery  is  a  constitutional  institution,  and  cannot  be 
prohibited  in  a  territory  by  either  territorial  or  con 
gressional  legislation.  It  is  recognized  by  the  Consti 
tution  as  an  existing  and  lawful  institution 
and  by  the  recognition  of  slavery  eo  nomine  in  the 
District  of  Columbia,  under  the  constitutional  provision 
for  the  acquisition  of  and  exclusive  legislation  over 
such  a  capitoline  district ;  and  by  that  clause  also 
which  declares  that  the  citizens  of  each  State  shall  be 
entitled  to  all  the  privileges  and  immunities  of  citizens 
in  the  several  States."  "  The  citizens  of  any  State 
cannot  be  constitutionally  denied  the  equal 
right  ...  of  sojourning  or  settling 
with  their  man-servants  and  maid-servants 
in  any  portion  of  the  widespread  Canaan  which  the 
Lord  their  God  hath  given  them,  there  to  dwell  unmo 
lested  in  person  or  property."  Admirable  exposition 
of  the  Constitution !  The  free  black  man  must  be  shut 
up  in  jail  if  he  goes  from  Boston  in  a  ship  to  Charles 
ton,  but  the  slaveholder  may  bring  his  slaves  to  Mas 
sachusetts  and  dwell  there  unmolested  with  his  prop 
erty  in  men.  South  Carolina  has  a  white  population 
of  274,567  persons,  considerably  less  than  half  the 
population  of  this  city.  But,  if  South  Carolina  says 
to  the  State  of  New  York,  with  three  million  men  in  it, 
Let  us  bring  our  slaves  to  New  York,  what  will  the 


AN  ANTI-SLAVERY  ADDRESS          191 

"  Hards,"  and  the  «  Softs,"  and  the  "  Silver  Greys  " 
answer?  Gentlemen,  we  shall  hear  what  we  shall  hear. 
I  fear  not  an  office-holder  of  any  note  would  oppose 
the  measure.  It  might  be  carried  with  the  present 
Supreme  Court,  or  Congress,  I  make  no  doubt. 

But  this  is  not  the  end.  After  the  Gadsden  Treaty, 
the  enslavement  of  Nebraska,  the  extension  of  slavery 
to  the  free  States,  the  seizure  of  Cuba,  with  other 
islands  —  San  Domingo,  etc., —  there  is  one  step  more 

—  THE     RE-ESTABLISHMENT    OF     THE    AFRICAN     SLAVE- 
TRADE. 

A  recent  number  of  the  Southern  Standard  thus  de 
velops  the  thought:  "With  firmness  and  judgment 
we  can  open  up  the  African  slave  emigration  again  to 
people  the  whole  region  of  the  tropics.  We  can 
boldly  defend  this  upon  the  most  enlarged  system  of 
philanthropy.  It  is  far  better  for  the  wild  races  of 
Africa  themselves."  "  The  good  old  Las  Casas,  in 
1519,  was  the  first  to  advise  Spain  to  import  Africans 
to  her  colonies.  .  .  .  Experience  has  shown  his 
scheme  was  founded  in  wise  and  Christian  philan 
thropy.  .  .  .  The  time  is  coming  when  we  will 
boldly  defend  this  emigration  [kidnapping  men  in  Af 
rica  and  selling  them  in  the  Christian  Republic]  be 
fore  the  world.  The  hypocritical  cant  and  whining 
morality  of  the  latter-day  saints  will  die  away  before 
the  majesty  of  commerce.  .  .  .  We  have  too  long 
been  governed  by  psalm-singing  schoolmasters  from 
the  North.  .  .  .  The  folly  commenced  in  our 
own  government  uniting  with  Great  Britain  to  de 
clare  slave-importing  piracy."  .  .  .  "A  general 
rupture  in  Europe  would  force  upon  us  the  undis 
puted  sway  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  the  West  In 
dies.  .  .  .  With  Cuba  and  San  Domingo,  we  could 


192  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

control  the  .  .  .  power  of  the  world.  Our  true 
policy  is  to  look  to  Brazil  as  the  next  great  slave 
power.  ...  A  treaty  of  commerce  and  alliance 
with  Brazil  will  give  us  the  control  over  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico  and  its  border  countries,  together  with  the 
islands ;  and  the  consequence  of  this  will  place  African 
slavery  beyond  the  reach  of  fanaticism  at  home  or 
abroad.  These  two  great  slave  powers  .  .  . 
ought  to  guard  and  strengthen  their  mutual  interests. 
We  can  not  only  preserve  domestic  servitude, 
but  we  can  defy  the  power  of  the  world." 
"  The  time  will  come  that  all  the  islands  and  regions 
suited  to  African  slavery,  between  us  and  Brazil,  will 
fall  under  the  control  of  these  two  powers. 
In  a  few  years  there  will  be  no  investment  for  the  $200,- 
000,000  ...  so  profitable  ...  as  the  de 
velopment  ...  of  the  tropical  regions  "  [that  is, 
as  the  African  slave-trade].  .  .  .  "If  the  slave- 
holding  race  in  these  States  are  but  true  to  themselves, 
they  have  a  great  destiny  before  them." 

Now,  gentlemen  and  ladies,  who  is  to  blame  that 
things  have  come  to  such  a  pass  as  this?  The  South 
and  the  North;  but  the  North  much  more  than  the 
South, —  very  much  more.  Gentlemen,  we  let  Gog  get 
upon  the  ark ;  we  took  pay  for  his  passage.  Our  most 
prominent  men  in  Church  and  State  have  sworn  alle 
giance  to  Gog.  But  this  is  not  always  to  last;  there 
is  a  day  after  to-day  —  a  forever  behind  each  to-day. 

The  North  ought  to  have  fought  slavery  at  the 
adoption  of  the  Constitution,  and  at  every  step  since ; 
after  the  battle  was  lost  then,  we  should  have  re 
sisted  each  successive  step  of  the  slave  power.  But  we 
have  yielded  —  yielded  continually.  We  made  no 
fight  over  the  annexation  of  slave  territory,  the  ad- 


AN  ANTI-SLAVERY  ADDRESS          193 

mission  of  slave  States.  We  should  have  rent  the 
Union  into  the  primitive  townships  sooner  than  con 
sent  to  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill.  But  as  we  failed  to 
fight  manfully  then,  I  never  thought  the  North  would 
rally  on  the  Missouri  Compromise  line.  I  rejoice  at 
the  display  of  indignation  I  witness  here  and  else 
where.  For  once  New  York  appears  more  moral  than 
Boston.  I  thank  you  for  it.  A  meeting  is  called  in 
the  Park  to-morrow.  It  is  high  time. —  I  doubt 
that  the  North  will  yet  rally  and  defend  the  line  drawn 
in  1820.  But  there  are  two  lines  of  defense  where 
the  nation  will  pause,  I  think  —  the  occupation  of 
Cuba,  with  its  war  so  destructive  to  Northern  ships ; 
and  the  restoration  of  the  African  slave-trade.  The 
slave-breeding  States,  Maryland,  Virginia,  Kentucky, 
Tennessee,  Missouri,  will  oppose  that ;  for,  if  the  Gulf 
States,  and  the  future  tropical  territories  can  import 
Africans  at  $100  a  head,  depend  upon  it,  that  will  spoil 
the  market  for  the  slave-breeders  of  America.  And, 
gentlemen,  if  Virginia  cannot  sell  her  own  children, 
how  will  this  "  well-born,  well-educated,  well-bred  aris 
tocrat  "  look  down  on  the  poor  and  ignorant  Yankee ! 
NO,  gentlemen,  this  iniquity  is  not  to  last  for  ever. 
A  certain  amount  of  force  will  compress  a  cubic  foot 
of  water  into  nine-tenths  of  its  natural  size;  but  the 
weight  of  the  whole  earth  cannot  make  it  any  smaller. 
Even  the  North  is  not  infinitely  compressible.  When 
atom  touches  atom,  you  may  take  off  the  screws. 

Things  cannot  continue  long  in  this  condition. 
Every  triumph  of  slavery  is  a  day's  march  towards  its 
ruin.  There  is  no  higher  law,  is  there  ?  "  He  taketh 
the  wise  in  their  own  craftiness,  the  council  of  the 
wicked  is  carried  " —  aye,  but  it  is  carried  headlong. 

Only  see  what  a  change  has  been  coming  over  our 
XIII— 13 


194  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

spirit  just  now.  Three  years  ago,  Isaiah  Rynders  and 
Hiram  Ketchum  domineered  over  New  York ;  and  those 
gentlemen  who  are  to  follow  me,  and  whom  you  are 
impatient  to  hear,  were  mobbed  down  in  the  city  of 
New  York,  two  years  ago;  they  could  not  find  a  hall 
that  would  be  leased  to  them  for  money  or  love,  and 
had  to  adjourn  to  Syracuse  to  hold  their  convention. 
Look  at  this  assembly  now. 

A  little  while  ago  all  the  leading  clergymen  were 
in  favor  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill ;  now  three  thou 
sand  of  New  England  ministers  remonstrate  against 
Nebraska.  They  know  there  is  a  fire  in  their  rear, 
and,  in  theological  language,  it  is  a  fire  that  "  is  not 
quenched."  It  goeth  not  out  by  day,  and  there  is  no 
night  there.  The  clergymen  stand  between  eternal 
torment  on  one  side  and  the  little  giant  of  slavery  on 
the  other.  They  do  not  go  back!  Two  thousand 
English  clergymen  once  became  non-conformists  in  a 
single  day.  Three  thousand  New  England  ministers 
remonstrated  against  the  enslavement  of  Nebraska. 
Now  is  the  time  to  push  and  be  active,  call  meetings, 
bring  out  men  of  all  parties,  all  forms  of  religion, 
agitate,  agitate,  agitate.  Make  a  fire  in  the  rear  of 
the  government  and  the  representatives.  The  South 
is  weak  —  only  united.  The  North  is  strong  in 
money?  in  men,  in  education,  in  the  justice  of  our  great 
cause  —  only  not  united  for  freedom.  Only  be  faith 
ful  to  ourselves,  and  slavery  will  come  down,  not 
slowly,  as  I  thought  once,  but  when  the  people  of  the 
North  say  it,  it  will  come  down  with  a  great  crash. 

Then,  when  we  are  free  from  this  plague-spot  of 
slavery  —  the  curse  to  our  industry,  our  education, 
our  politics,  and  our  religion  —  we  shall  increase  more 
rapidly  in  number  and  still  more  abundantly  be  rich. 


AN  ANTI-SLAVERY  ADDRESS          195 

The  South  will  be  as  the  North  —  active,  intelligent  — 
Virginia  rich  as  New  York,  the  Carolinas  as  active  as 
Massachusetts.  Then,  by  peaceful  purchase,  the 
Anglo-Saxon  may  acquire  the  rest  of  this  North  Amer 
ican  continent.  The  Spaniards  will  make  nothing  of 
it.  Nay,  we  may  honorably  go  farther  South,  and 
possess  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  slopes  of  the  North 
ern  continent,  extending  the  area  of  freedom  at  every 
step.  We  may  carry  thither  the  Anglo-Saxon  vigor 
and  enterprise,  the  old  love  of  liberty,  the  love  also 
of  law ;  the  best  institutions  of  the  present  age  — 
ecclesiastical,  political,  social,  domestic.  Then  what  a 
nation  we  shall  one  day  become.  America,  the  mother 
of  a  thousand  Anglo-Saxon  States,  tropic  and  temper 
ate,  on  both  sides  of  the  equator,  may  behold  the  Mis 
sissippi  and  the  Amazon  uniting  their  waters,  the 
drainage  of  two  vast  continents  in  the  Mediterranean 
of  the  western  world;  may  count  her  children  at  last 
by  hundreds  of  millions  —  and  among  them  all  behold 
no  tyrant  and  no  slave !  What  a  spectacle  —  the 
Anglo-Saxon  family  occupying  a  whole  hemisphere, 
with  industry,  freedom,  religion.  The  fulfilment  of 
this  vision  is  our  province ;  we  are  the  involuntary  in 
struments  of  God.  Shall  America  scorn  the  mission 
God  sends  her  on?  Then  let  us  all  perish,  and  may 
Russia  teach  justice  to  mankind. 


Ta  N!  > 

5?     60 


VII 

THE  PROGRESS  OF  AMERICA 

1854 

At  this  day  there  are  two  great  tribes  of  men  in 
Christendom,  which  seem  to  have  a  promising  future 
before  them  —  the  Slavonic  and  the  Anglo-Saxon. 
Both  are  comparatively  new.  For  the  last  three  hun 
dred  years  each  has  been  continually  advancing  in 
numbers,  riches,  and  territory ;  in  industrial  and  mili 
tary  power.  To  judge  from  present  appearances,  it 
seems  probable  that  a  hundred  years  hence  there  will 
be  only  two  great  national  forces  in  the  Christian 
world  —  the  Slavonic  and  the  Anglo-Saxon. 

The  Anglo-Saxon  tribe  is  composite,  and  the  ming 
ling  so  recent,  that  we  can  still  easily  distinguish  the 
main  ingredients  of  the  mixture.  There  are,  first,  the 
Saxons  and  Angles  from  North  Germany ;  next,  the 
Scandinavians  from  Denmark  and  Sweden ;  and, 
finally,  the  Normans,  or  Romanized  Scandinavians, 
from  France. 

This  tribe  is  now  divided  into  two  great  political 
branches,  namely,  the  Anglo-Saxon  Briton,  and  the 
Anglo-Saxon  American ;  but  both  are  substantially  the 
same  people,  though  with  different  antecedents  and 
surroundings.  The  same  fundamental  characteristics 
belong  to  the  Briton  and  the  American. 

Three  hundred  years  ago,  the  Anglo-Saxons  were 
scarce  three  millions  in  number;  they  did  not  own  the 
whole  of  Great  Britain.  Now  there  are  thirty  or 
forty  millions  of  men  with  Anglo-Saxon  blood  in  their 
veins.  They  possess  the  British  Islands ;  Heligoland, 

196 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  AMERICA          197 

Gibraltar,  Malta,  and  the  Ionian  Isles;  St.  Helena, 
South  Africa,  much  of  East  and  West  Africa ;  enor 
mous  territories  in  India,  continually  increasing;  the 
whole  of  Australia ;  almost  all  of  North  America,  and 
I  know  not  how  many  islands  scattered  about  the  At 
lantic  and  Pacific  seas.  Their  geographical  spread 
covers  at  least  one-sixth  part  of  the  habitable  globe; 
their  power  controls  about  one-fifth  of  the  inhabitants 
of  the  earth.  It  is  the  richest  of  all  the  families  of 
mankind.  The  Anglo-Saxon  leads  the  commerce  and 
the  most  important  manufactures  of  the  world.  He 
owns  seven-eighths  of  the  shipping  of  Christendom, 
and  half  that  of  the  human  race.  He  avails  himself 
of  the  latest  discoveries  in  practical  science,  and  ap 
plies  them  to  the  creation  of  comforts  and  luxuries. 
Iron  is  his  favorite  metal ;  and  about  two-thirds  of  the 
annual  iron  crop  of  the  earth  is  harvested  on  Anglo- 
Saxon  soil.  Cotton,  wheat,  and  the  potato,  are  his 
favorite  plants. 

The  political  institutions  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  se 
cure  national  unity  of  action  for  the  State,  and  indi 
vidual  variety  of  action  for  each  citizen,  to  a  greater 
degree  than  other  nations  have  thought  possible.  In 
all  Christendom,  there  is  scarce  any  freedom  of  the 
press  except  on  Anglo-Saxon  soil.  Ours  is  the  only 
tongue  in  which  liberty  can  speak.  Anglo-Saxon 
Britain  is  the  asylum  of  exiled  patriots,  or  exiled  des 
pots.  The  royal  and  patrician  wrecks  of  the  revolu 
tionary  storms  of  continental  Europe,  in  the  last  cen 
tury  and  in  this,  were  driven  to  her  hospitable  shore. 
Kossuth,  Mazzini,  Victor  Hugo,  and  Comte,  relics  of 
the  last  revolution,  are  washed  to  the  same  coast. 
America  is  the  asylum  of  exiled  nations,  who  flee  to  her 
arms,  four  hundred  thousand  in  a  year,  and  find  shelter. 


198  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

The  Slavonians  fight  with  diplomacy  and  the  sword, 
the  Anglo-Saxon  with  diplomacy  and  the  dollar.     He 
is  the  Roman  of  productive  industry,  of  commerce,  as 
the  Romans   were  Anglo-Saxons   of   destructive   con 
quest,  of  war.     The  Slavonian  nations,  from  the  acci 
dent   of   their   geographical   position,    or   from   their 
ethnological   peculiarity   of  nature,   invade   and   con 
quer  lands  more  civilized  than  their  own.     They  have 
the  diplomatic  skill  to  control  nations  of  superior  in 
tellectual  and  moral  development.     The  Anglo-Saxon 
is  too  clumsy  for  foreign  politics ;  when  he  meddles 
with  the  affairs  of  other  civilized  people,  he  is  often 
deceived.     Russia  outwits  England  continually  in  the 
political  game  now  playing  for  the  control  of  Europe. 
The  Anglo-Saxon,  more  invasive  than  the  Slavonian, 
prefers  new  and  wild  lands  to  old  and  well-cultivated 
territories ;  so  he  conquers  America,  and  tills  its  virgin 
soil :  seizes  on  Africa, —  the  dry  nurse  of  lions  and  of 
savage  men, —  and  founds  a  new  empire  in  Australia. 
If  he  invades  Asia,  it  is  in  the  parts  not  Christian. 
His  rule  is  a  curse  to  countries  full  of  old  civilization ; 
I  take  it  that  England  has  been  a  blight  to  India,  and 
will  be  to  China,  if  she  sets  there  her  conquering  foot. 
The  Anglo-Saxon  is  less  pliable  than  the  Romans,  a 
less   indulgent  master  to   conquered  men;  with  more 
plastic  power  to  organize  and  mold,  he  has  a  less  com 
prehensive    imagination,    limits    himself   to    a    smaller 
number  of  forms,  and  so  hews  off  and  casts  away  what 
suits  him  not.     Austria  conquers  Lombardy,  France 
Algiers,   Russia,   Poland,   to   the  benefit   of  the   con 
quered  party,  it  seems.     Can  any  one  show  that  the 
British  rule  has  been  a  benefit  to  India?     The  Rus 
sians  make  nothing  of  their  American  territory.     But 
what    civilization    blooms    out   of  the   savage    ground 
wherever  the  Saxon  plants  his  foot ! 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  AMERICA         199 

I  must  say  a  word  of  the  leading  peculiarities  of 
this  tribe. 

1.  There   is   a   strong  love   of  individual  freedom. 
This  belongs  to  the  Anglo-Saxons  in  common  with  all 
the   Teutonic  family.     But  with  them   it  seems   emi 
nently  powerful.     Circumstances  have  favored  its  de 
velopment.     They   care  much  for  freedom,  little  for 
equality. 

2.  Connected  with  this,  is  a  love  of  law  and  order, 
which   continually   shows   itself  on  both  sides   of  the 
ocean.     Fast  as  we  gain  freedom,  we  secure  it  by  law 
and  constitution,  trusting  little  to  the  caprice  of  mag 
istrates. 

3.  Then  there  is  a  great  federative  power  —  a  ten 
dency  to  form  combinations   of  persons,   or  of  com 
munities  and  states  —  special  partnerships  on  a  small 
scale  for  mercantile  business ;  on  a  large  scale,  like  the 
American  Union,  or  the  Hanse  towns,  for  the  political 
business  of  a  nation. 

4.  The  Anglo-Saxons  have  eminent  practical  power 
to  organize  things  into  a  mill,  or  men  into  a  State, 
and  then  to  administer  the  organization.     This  power 
is  one  which  contributes  greatly  to  both  their  commer 
cial  and  political  success.     But  this  tribe  is  also  most 
eminently   material   in   its   aims   and   means;   it  loves 
riches,  works  for  riches,  fights  for  riches.     It  is  not 
warlike,  as  some  other  nations,  who  love  war  for  its 
own  sake,  though  a  hard  fighter  when  put  to  it. 

5.  We  are  the  most  aggressive,   invasive,   and  ex 
clusive  people  on  the  earth.    The  history  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon,  for  the  last  three  hundred  years,  has  been  one 
of    continual    aggression,    invasion,    and    extermina 
tion. 

I  cannot  now  stop  to  dwell  on  these  traits  of  our 


200  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

tribal  anthropology,  but  must  yet  say  a  word  touch 
ing  this  national  exclusiveness  and  tendency  to  ex 
terminate. 

Austria  and  Russia  never  treated  a  conquered  na 
tion  so  cruelly  as  England  has  treated  Ireland.  Not 
many  years  ago,  four-fifths  of  the  population  of  the 
island  were  Catholics,  a  tenth  Anglican  churchmen. 
All  offices  were  in  the  hands  of  the  little  minority. 
Two-thirds  of  the  Irish  House  of  Commons  were  nom 
inees  of  the  Protestant  gentry ;  the  Catholic  members 
must  take  the  declaration  against  transubstantiation. 
Papists  were  forbidden  to  vote  in  elections  of  members 
to  the  Irish  Parliament.  They  suffered  "  under  a 
universal,  unmitigated,  indispensable,  exceptionless 
disqualification."  "  In  the  courts  of  law,  they  could 
not  gain  a  place  on  the  bench,  nor  act  as  a  barrister, 
attorney,  or  solicitor,  nor  be  employed  even  as  a  hired 
clerk,  nor  sit  on  a  grand  jury,  nor  serve  as  a  sheriff, 
nor  hold  even  the  lowest  civil  office  of  trust  and  profit ; 
nor  have  any  privilege  in  a  town  corporation ;  nor  be 
a  freeman  of  such  corporation ;  nor  vote  at  a  ves 
try."  A  Catholic  could  not  marry  a  Protestant: 
the  priest  who  should  celebrate  such  a  marriage  was 
to  be  hanged.  He  could  not  be  "  a  guardian  to  any 
child,  nor  educate  his  own  child,  if  its  mother  were  a 
Protestant,"  or  the  child  declared  in  favor  of  Protes 
tantism.  "  No  Papist  might  instruct  a  Protestant. 
Papists  could  not  supply  their  want  by  academies  and 
schools  of  their  own ;  for  a  Catholic  to  teach,  even 
in  a  private  family,  or  as  usher  to  a  Protestant,  was 
a  felony,  punishable  by  imprisonment,  exile,  or  death." 
"  To  be  educated  in  any  foreign  Catholic  school  was 

*  Bancroft,  History  of  United  States,  vol.  v.  p.  66,  et  *eq. 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  AMERICA          201 

an  unalterable  and  perpetual  outlawry."  "  The  child 
sent  abroad  for  education,  no  matter  of  how  tender  an 
age,  or  himself  how  innocent,  could  never  after  sue 
in  law  or  equity,  or  be  guardian,  executor,  or  admin 
istrator,  or  receive  any  legacy  or  deed  of  gift ;  he  for 
feited  all  his  goods  and  chattels,  and  forfeited  for  his 
life  all  his  lands ;  "  whoever  sent  him  incurred  the  same 
penalties. 

The  Catholic  clergy  could  not  be  taught  at  home  or 
abroad :  they  "  were  registered  and  kept,  like  prison 
ers  at  large,  within  prescribed  limits."  "  All  papists 
exercising  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction;  all  monks,  friars, 
and  regular  priests,  and  all  priests  not  actually  in 
parishes,  and  to  be  registered,  were  banished  from 
Ireland  under  pain  of  transportation;  and,  on  a  re 
turn,  of  being  hanged  and  quartered."  "  The  Cath 
olic  priest  abjuring  his  religion,  received  a  pension  of 
thirty,  and  afterwards  of  forty  pounds."  "  No  non- 
conforming  Catholic  could  buy  land,  or  receive  it  by 
descent,  devise,  or  settlement;  or  lend  money  on  it  as 
security ;  or  hold  an  interest  in  it  through  a  Protes 
tant  trustee ;  or  take  a  lease  of  ground  for  more  than 
thirty-one  years.  If  under  such  a  lease  he  brought 
his  farm  to  produce  more  than  one-third  beyond  the 
rent,  the  first  Protestant  discoverer  might  sue  for  the 
lease  before  known  Protestants,  making  the  defendant 
answer  all  interrogations  on  oath ;  so  that  the  Catholic 
farmer  dared  not  drain  his  fields,  nor  inclose  them, 
nor  build  solid  houses  on  them."  "  Even  if  a  Cath 
olic  owned  a  horse  worth  more  than  five  pounds,  any 
Protestant  might  take  it  away,"  on  payment  of  that 
sum.  "  To  the  native  Irish,  the  English  oligarchy 
appeared  as  men  of  a  different  race  and  creed,  who 
had  acquired  the  island  by  force  of  arms,  rapine,  and 


202  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

chicane,  and  derived  revenues  from  it  by  the  employ 
ment  of  extortionate  underlings  or  overseers."  * 

The  same  disposition  to  invade  and  exterminate 
showed  itself  on  this  side  of  the  ocean. 

In  America,  the  Frenchman  and  the  Spaniard  came 
in  contact  with  the  red  man;  they  converted  him  to 
what  they  called  Christianity,  and  then  associated  with 
him  on  equal  terms.  The  pale-face  and  the  red-skin 
hunted  in  company ;  they  fished  from  the  same  canoe 
in  the  Bay  of  Fundy  and  Lake  Superior;  they  lodged 
in  the  same  tent,  slept  on  the  same  bear-skin ;  nay,  they 
knelt  together  before  the  same  God,  who  was  "  no 
respecter  of  persons,"  and  had  made  of  one  blood  all 
nations  of  men !  The  white  man  married  the  Indian's 
daughter;  the  red  man  wooed  and  won  the  pale  child 
of  the  Caucasian.  This  took  place  in  Canada,  and 
in  Mexico,  in  Peru,  and  Ecuador.  In  Brazil,  the 
negro  graduates  at  the  college ;  he  becomes  a  general 
in  the  army.  But  the  Anglo-Saxon  disdains  to  min 
gle  his  proud  blood  in  wedlock  with  the  "  inferior 
races  of  men."  He  puts  away  the  savage  —  black, 
yellow,  red.  In  New  England,  the  Puritan  converted 
the  Indians  to  Christianity,  as  far  as  they  could  ac 
cept  the  theology  of  John  Calvin ;  but  made  a  careful 
separation  between  white  and  red,  "  my  people  and 
thy  people."  They  must  dwell  in  separate  villages, 
worship  in  separate  houses ;  they  must  not  intermarry. 
The  general  court  of  Massachusetts  once  forbade  all 
extra-matrimonial  connection  of  white  and  red,  on 
pain  of  death!  The  Anglo-Saxon  has  carefully 
sought  to  exterminate  the  savages  from  his  territory. 
The  Briton  does  so  in  Africa,  in  Van  Diemen's  Land, 
in  New  Zealand,  in  New  Holland  —  wherever  he  meets 

*  Bancroft,  ubi  sup.  p.  67,  et  seq. 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  AMERICA 

them.  The  American  does  the  same  in  the  western 
world.  In  New  England  the  Puritan  found  the  wild 
woods,  the  wild  beasts,  and  the  wild  men;  he  under 
took  to  eradicate  them  all,  and  has  succeeded  best  with 
the  wild  men.  There  are  more  bears  than  Indians 
in  New  England.  The  United  States  pursues  the 
same  destructive  policy.  In  two  hundred  years  more 
there  will  be  few  Indians  left  between  the  Lake  of  the 
Woods  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  between  the  Atlantic 
and  Pacific  Oceans. 

Yet  the  Anglo-Saxons  are  not  cruel;  they  are  sim 
ply  destructive.  The  Dutch,  in  New  York,  perpe 
trated  the  most  wanton  cruelties:  the  savages  them 
selves  shuddered  at  the  white  man's  atrocity :  "  Our 
gods  would  be  offended  at  such  things,"  said  they ; 
"  the  white  man's  God  must  be  different !  "  The  cru 
elties  of  the  French,  and,  still  more,  of  the  Spaniards 
in  Mexico,  in  the  West  Indies,  and  South  America,  are 
too  terrible  to  repeat,  but  too  well  known  to  need  re 
lating.  The  Spaniard  put  men  to  death  with  refine 
ments  of  cruelty,  luxuriating  in  destructiveness.  The 
Anglo-Saxon  simply  shot  down  his  foe,  offered  a  re 
ward  for  homicide,  so  much  for  a  scalp,  but  tolerated 
ho  needless  cruelty.  If  the  problem  is  to  destroy  a 
race  of  men  with  the  least  expenditure  of  destructive 
force  on  one  side,  and  the  least  suffering  on  the  other, 
the  Anglo-Saxon,  Briton,  or  American,  is  the  fittest 
instrument  to  be  found  on  the  whole  globe. 

So  much  for  the  Anglo-Saxon  character  in  general. 
It  is  well  to  know  the  anthropology  of  the  stock  be 
fore  attempting  to  appreciate  the  character  of  the 
special  people.  America  has  the  general  character 
istics  of  this  powerful  tribe,  but  modified  by  her  pe 
culiar  geographical  and  historical  position.  Our 


204  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

fathers  emigrated  from  their  home  in  a  time  of  great 
ferment,  and  brought  with  them  ideas  which  could 
not  then  be  organized  into  institutions  at  home.  This 
was  obviously  the  case  with  the  theological  ideas  of 
the  Puritans,  who,  with  their  descendants,  have  given 
to  America  most  of  what  is  new  and  peculiar  in  her 
institutions.  Still  more,  the  early  settlers  of  the 
North  brought  with  them  sentiments  not  ripened  yet, 
which,  in  due  time,  developed  themselves  into  ideas, 
and  then  into  institutions. 

At  first,  necessity,  or  love  of  change,  drove  the  wan 
derers  to  the  wilderness ;  they  had  no  thought  of  sepa 
rating  from  England.  The  fugitive  Pilgrims  in  the 
Mayflower,  who  subscribed  the  compact,  which  so  many 
Americans  erroneously  regard  as  the  "  seed-corn  of 
the  republican  tree,  under  which  millions  of  her 
men  now  stand,"  called  themselves  "  loyal  subjects  of 
our  dread  sovereign,  King  James,"  undertaking  to 
plant  a  colony  "  for  the  glory  of  God,  and  advance 
ment  of  the  Christian  faith  and  honor  of  our  king 
and  country."  In  due  time,  as  the  colonists  devel 
oped  themselves  in  one,  and  the  English  at  home  in 
a  different  direction,  there  came  to  be  a  great  diver 
sity  of  ideas,  and  an  opposition  of  interests.  When 
mutuality  of  ideas  and  of  interests,  as  the  indispen 
sable  condition  of  national  unity  of  action,  failed,  the 
colony  fell  off  from  its  parent:  the  separation  was 
unavoidable.  Before  many  years,  we  doubt  not,  Aus 
tralia  will  thus  separate  from  the  mother  country,  to 
the  advantage  of  both  parties. 

In  America,  two  generations  of  men  have  passed 
away  since  the  last  battle  of  the  Revolution.  The 
hostility  of  that  contest  is  only  a  matter  of  history 
to  the  mass  of  Britons  or  Americans,  not  of  daily  con- 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  AMERICA         205 

sciousness;  and  as  this  disturbing  force  is  withdrawn, 
the  two  nations  see  and  feel  more  distinctly  their 
points  of  agreement,  and  become  conscious  that  they 
are  both  but  one  people. 

The  transfer  of  the  colonists  of  England  to  the 
western  world  was  an  event  of  great  importance  to 
mankind;  they  found  a  virgin  continent,  on  which 
to  set  up  and  organize  their  ideas,  and  develop  their 
faculties.  They  had  no  enemies  but  the  wilderness 
and  its  savage  occupants.  I  doubt  not  that,  if  the 
emigrant  had  remained  at  home,  it  would  have  taken  a 
thousand  years  to  attain  the  same  general  develop 
ment  now  reached  by  the  free  States  of  North  Amer 
ica.  The  settlers  carried  with  them  the  best  ideas 
and  the  best  institutions  of  their  native  land  —  the 
arts  and  sciences  of  England,  the  forms  of  a  rep 
resentative  government,  the  trial  by  jury,  the  com 
mon  law,  the  ideas  of  Christianity,  and  the  traditions 
of  the  human  race.  In  the  woods,  far  from  help, 
they  were  forced  to  become  self-reliant  and  thrifty 
men.  It  is  instructive  to  see  what  has  come  of  the 
experiment.  It  is  but  two  hundred  and  forty-six  years 
since  the  settlement  of  Jamestown  —  not  two  hun 
dred  and  thirty-four  years  since  the  Pilgrims  landed 
at  Plymouth ;  what  a  development  since  that  time  — 
of  numbers,  of  riches,  of  material  and  spiritual  power ! 

In  the  ninth  century,  Korb  Flokki,  a  half-mythical 
person,  "  let  loose  his  three  crows,"  it  is  said,  seek 
ing  land  to  the  west  and  north  of  the  Orkneys,  and 
went  to  Iceland.  In  the  tenth  century,  Gunnbjiom, 
and  Eirek  the  Red,  discovered  Greenland,  an  "  ugly 
and  right  hateful  country,"  as  Paul  Egede  calls  it. 
In  the  eleventh  century,  Leife,  son  of  Eirek,  with 
Tyrker  the  Southerner,  discovered  Vinland,  some  part 


206  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

of  North  America,  but  whether  Newfoundland,  Nova 
Scotia,  or  New  England,  I  shall  leave  others  to  de 
termine.  It  is  not  yet  four  hundred  years  since 
Columbus  first  dropped  his  anchor  at  San  Salvador, 
and  Cabot  discovered  the  continent  of  America,  and 
cruised  along  its  shores  from  Hudson's  Bay  to  Flor 
ida,  seeking  for  a  passage  to  the  East  Indies.  In 
1608  the  first  permanent  British  settlement  was  made 
in  America,  at  Jamestown ;  in  1620  the  Pilgrims  be 
gan  their  far-famed  experiment  at  Plymouth.  What 
a  change  from  1608  to  1854 !  It  is  not  in  my  power 
to  determine  the  number  of  immigrants  before  the 
Revolution.  There  was  a  great  variety  of  national 
ities  —  Dutch  in  New  York,  Germans  in  Pennsyl 
vania  and  Georgia,  Swedes  and  Finns  in  Delaware, 
Scotch  in  New  England  and  North  Carolina,  Swiss 
in  Georgia ;  Acadians  from  Nova  Scotia ;  and  Hugue 
nots  from  France. 

America  has  now  a  stable  form  of  government. 
Her  pyramid  is  not  yet  high.  It  is  only  humble  pow 
ers  that  she  develops,  no  great  creative  spirit  here 
as  yet  enchants  men  with  the  wonders  of  literature 
and  art  —  but  her  foundation  is  wide  and  deeply  laid. 
It  is  now  easy  to  see  the  conditions  and  the  causes 
of  her  success.  The  conditions  are,  the  new  conti 
nent,  a  virgin  soil  to  receive  the  seed  of  liberty;  the 
causes  were,  first,  the  character  of  the  tribe,  and  next, 
the  liberal  institutions  founded  thereby. 

The  rapid  increase  of  America  in  most  of  the  ele 
ments  of  national  power,  is  a  remarkable  fact  in  the 
history  of  mankind. 

Look  at  the  increase  of  numbers.  In  1689,  the 
entire  population  of  the  English  colonies,  exclusive 
of  the  Indians,  amounted  to  about  200,000.  Twen- 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  AMERICA 


207 


ty-five  years  later  there  were  434,000,  now  24,000,- 
000.* 

The  present  population  of  the  United  States  con- 


Table  of  Population  in  1715. 


Colonies. 

Whites. 

Negroes. 

Total. 

New  Hampshire  

9,500 

150 

9,650 

94,000 

2,000 

96,000 

Rhode  Island 

8,500 

500 

9,000 

Connecticut          

46,000 

1,500 

47,500 

New  York     

27,000 

4,000 

31,000 

New  Jersey   

21,000 

1  500 

22,500 

Pennsylvania  and  Delaware   

43,300 
40,700 

2,500 
9,500 

45,800 
50,200 

Virginia                  .  . 

72  000 

23  000 

95  000 

North  Carolina           

7  500 

3  700 

11,200 

South  Carolina  

6  250 

10  500 

16,750 

375,750 

58,850 

134,600 

In  1754,  another  return  was  made  to  the  Board  of  Trade,  in 
the  following: 

Table  of  Population  in  1754. 
Whites.  Blacks.  Total. 

1,192,896  292,738  1,485,634 

We  will  now  give  the  population  at  seven  successive  periods, 
as  indicated  by  the  returns  of  the  official  census  of  the  United 
States. 

Table  of  Population  from  1790  to  1850. 

•ee  Colored.     Slaves.  Total. 

59,466  697,897  3,929,827 

108,395  893,041  5,305,925 

186,446         1,191,364  7,239,814 

238,197         1,543,688  9,654,596 

319,599  2,009,043  12,866,020 
386,348  2,487,355  17,069,453 
428,661  3,198,324  23,257,723 


Years. 

Whites. 

1790 

3,172,464 

1800 

4,304,489 

1810 

5,862,004 

1820 

7,872,711 

1830 

10,537,378 

1840 

14,189,555 

1850 

19,630,738 

208  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

sists  of  the  following  ingredients.     The  numbers  are 
conjectural  and  approximate: 

Table  of  Nationality. 
White  Immigrants  since  1790,  and  their 

white   descendants 4,350,934 

Africans,  and  their  descendants 3,626,585 

White  Immigrants  previous  to  1790,  and 

their  white  descendants 15,279,804 

This  does  not  include  the  Indians  living  within  the 
territories  and  States  of  the  Union.  These  facts  show 
that  a  remarkable  mingling  of  families  of  the  Cau- 

The  following  is  the  official  report  of  immigration  from  1790 
to  1850.     Much  of  it  is  conjectural  and  approximate. 

Table   of  Immigration  from   1790   to   1850. 

From  1790  to  1800 120,000 

From  1810  to  1820 114,000 

From  1820  to  1830 203,979 

From  1830  to  1840 778,500 

From  1840  to  1850 1,542,840 


2,759,329 

The  immigrants  are  thus  conjecturally  distributed  among  the 
nations  of  the  earth.  The  estimate  is  a  rough  one. 

Table  of  Nationality. 

Celtic  —  Irish  (one-half) 1,350,000 

Teutonic  —  Germans,  Danes,  Swedes,  etc.  (one- fourth)  675,000 

Miscellaneous  —  All  other  nations 734,329 

The  following  statement  exhibits  the  nationality  of  the  immi 
gration  to  the  United  States  for  the  calendar  year,  1851  (Dec. 
31,  1850,  to  Dec.  31,  1851):  — 

Nationality  of  Immigrants  in  1851. 

From  Great  Britain  and  Ireland 264,222 

From   Germany 72,283 

From  France 20,107 

Of  these  there  were  Males 245,017 

Of  these  there  were  Females 163,745 

Of  these  there  were  Unknown. .  66 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  AMERICA         209 

casian  stock  is  taking  place.  The  exact  statistics 
would  disclose  a  yet  more  remarkable  mingling  of  the 
Caucasian  and  the  Ethiopian  races  going  on.  The 
Africans  are  rapidly  "  bleaching "  under  the  influ 
ence  of  democratic  chemistry.  If  only  one-tenth  of 
the  colored  population  has  Caucasian  blood  in  its  veins, 
then  there  are  362,698  descendants  of  this  "  amalga 
mation  " ;  but  if  you  estimate  these  hybrids  as  one  in 
five,  which  is  not  at  all  excessive,  we  have  then  725,- 
397. 

The  thirty-one  States  now  organized  have  a  sur 
face  of  1,485,870  square  miles,  while  the  total  area 
of  the  United  States,  so  far  as  I  have  information, 
on  the  17th  of  May,  1853,  was  3,220,000  square  miles. 
In  the  States,  on  an  average,  there  are  not  sixteen 
persons  to  the  square  mile;  in  the  whole  territory, 
not  eight  to  a  mile.  Massachusetts,  the  most  densely 
peopled  State,  has  more  than  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
six  to  the  mile,  while  Texas  has  but  eighty-nine  men 
for  a  hundred  miles  of  land,  more  than  eight  hun 
dred  acres  to  each  human  soul. 

In  1840,  there  were  ten  States,  whose  united  pop 
ulations  exceeded  4,000,000,  which  yet  had  no  town 
with  10,000  inhabitants.* 

Table  of  Immigration  for  the  first  four  months  of  1853. 

From  the  British  Islands 15,023 

From  the  French  Ports 8,768 

From  the  German  Ports 3,511 

From  the  Belgian  and  Dutch 2,747 

From  the  Spanish,  Portuguese,  and  Italian.          135 

*The  following  table  shows  the  occupation  of  4,798,870  per 
sons  in  1840,  ascertained  by  the  census:  — 

Table  of  Occupation. 

Engaged  in  Mining 15,211 

Engaged  in  Agriculture 3,719,951 

XIII— 14 


210  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

Look  next  at  the  products  of  industry  in  the 
United  States.* 

The  contrast  between  the  Spanish  and  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  settlements  in  America  is  amazing.  A  hun- 

Engaged  in  Commerce  117,607 

Engaged  in  Manufactures 791,749 

Engaged  in  Navigation  (Ocean)    56,021 

Engaged  in  Navigation  (Inland  Waters)  33,076 

Engaged  in  Learned  Professions   65,255 

*  I  take  these  results  of  the  census  of  1840,  as  deduced  by 
Professor  Tucker,  in  his  admirable  book,  Progress  of  the  United 
States  in  Population  and  Wealth  in  Fifty  Years.  New  York, 
1843.  1  vol.  8vo. 

Value  of  Annual  Products  of  Industry,  1840. 

Agriculture $654,387,597 

Manufactures 236,836,224 

Commerce 79,721,086 

Mining 42,358,761 

The  Forest 16,835,060 

The  Ocean   11,996,108 


Total $1,063,134,736 

In  1850,  the  iron-crop  in  the  United  States  amounted  to 
564,755  tons.  The  ship-crop  was  1360  vessels,  with  a  measure 
ment  of  272,218  tons.  The  increase  of  American  shipping  is 
worth  notice,  and  is  shown  in  the  following: 

Table  of  American  Tonnage  from  1815  to  1850. 

Years.  Tons. 

1815    1^68,127 

1820    1,280,165 

1825    1,423,110 

1830    1,181,986 

1835    1,824,939 

1840    2,180,763 

1845    2,417,001 

1850    3,535,454 

The  tonnage  is  still  on  the  increase.  In  1851  it  amounted  to 
3,772,439,  and  at  this  moment  must  be  considerably  more  than 
4,000,000.  The  first  ship  built  in  New  England  was  the  "  Blessing 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  AMERICA 

dred  years  ago,  Spain,  the  discoverer  of  America,  had 
undisputed  sway  over  all  South  America,  except  Bra 
zil  and  the  Guianas.  All  Mexico  was  hers  —  all  Cen 
tral  America,  California  unbounded  on  the  north,  ex 
tending  indefinitely,  Louisiana,  Florida,  Cuba,  Porto 
Rico,  and  part  of  Hayti.  She  ruled  a  population 
of  twenty  million  men.  Now  Cuba  trembles  in  her 
faltering  hand;  all  the  rest  has  dropped  from  the 
arms  of  that  feeble  mother  of  feeble  sons.  In  1750 
her  American  colonies  extended  from  Patagonia  to 
Oregon.  The  La  Plata  was  too  far  north  for  her  south 
ern  limit,  the  Columbia  too  far  south  for  her  north- 

of  the  Bay,"  a  "bark  of  thirty  tons,"  launched  in  1634.  Not 
far  from  the  spot  where  her  keel  was  laid,  a  ship  has  recently 
been  built,  three  hundred  and  ten  feet  long,  and  more  than  six 
thousand  tons  burden. 

On  the  30th  September,  1851,  there  were,  if  the  accounts  are 
reliable,  12,805  miles  of  railroad  in  the  United  States.  At  pres 
ent,  there  are  probably  about  15,000  miles. 

The  most  important  articles  of  export  for  five-and-twenty  years 
appear  in  the  following: 

Table  of  the  chief  articles  of  Export  from  1825  to  1850. 

Years.              Cotton.          Breadstuffs  and  Tobacco. 

Provisions. 

1825             $36,846,649             $11,634,449  $6,115,623 

1830               29,674,883               12,075,430  5,586,365 

1835               64,961,302               12,009,399  8,250,577 

1840               63,870,307               19,067,535  9,883,957 

1845               51,739,643               16,743,421  7,469,819 

1850               71,484,616               26,051,373  9,951,023 

1852               87,965,732               25,857,177  10,031,283 

The  greatest  amount  of  cotton  was  exported  in  1852, — 1,093,- 
230,639  pounds;  but  the  greatest  value  of  cotton  was  in  1851, 
amounting  to  $112,351,317.  In  1847,  the  value  of  breadstuffs 
and  provisions  exported  was  $68,701,921. 

The  government  revenues  for  the  fiscal  year  1852  were  $49,- 
728,386.89;  there  was  a  balance  in  the  treasury  of  $10,911,645.68; 
making  the  total  means  for  that  year  $60,640,032.57.  On  the 
1st  January,  1853,  the  national  debt  amounted  to  $65,131,692. 


212  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

era  bound.  The  Mississippi  and  the  Amazon  were 
Spanish  rivers,  and  emptied  the  waters  of  a  continent 
into  the  lap  of  America,  the  Mexique  Gulf,  which 
was  also  a  Spanish  sea.  But  Spain  allowed  only 
eight-and-thirty  vessels  to  ply  between  the  mother 
country  and  the  family  of  American  daughters  on 
both  sides  of  the  continent.  The  empire  of  Spain, 
mother  country  and  colonies,  extending  from  Bar 
celona  to  Manila,  with  more  sea-coast  than  the  whole 
continent  of  Africa,  employed  but  sixteen  thousand 
sailors  in  her  commercial  marine.  Portugal  forbade 
Brazil  to  cultivate  any  of  the  products  of  the  Indies. 

Look  at  this  day  at  Anglo-Saxon,  and  then  at  Span 
ish  America.  In  1606  there  was  not  an  English  set 
tlement  in  America.  In  1627  only  two,  Jamestown 
and  Plymouth.  But  the  Spanish  colonies  date  back 
to  1493.  Compare  the  history  of  the  basin  of  the 
Amazon  with  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi.  The 
Amazon,  with  its  affluents,  commands  seventy  thou 
sand  miles  of  internal  navigation,  draining  more  ara 
ble  land  than  all  Europe  contains,  the  largest,  the 
most  fertile  valley  in  the  world.  It  includes  1,796,- 
000  square  miles.  Everything  which  finds  a  home 
on  earth  will  flourish  in  the  basin  of  the  Amazon, 
between  the  level  of  the  Atlantic  and  the  top  of  the 
Andes.  But  the  tonnage  on  the  Amazon  does  not 
probably  equal  the  tonnage  on  Lake  Champlain. 
Only  an  Anglo-Saxon  steamer  ruffles  the  waters  of  the 
Amazon.  Para,  at  its  mouth,  more  than  three  hun 
dred  years  old,  contains  less  than  20,000  inhabitants. 

The  Mississippi  with  its  tributaries  drains  982,000 
square  miles,  and  affords  16,694  miles  of  steam  nav 
igation.  In  1851  there  were  1,190  steamboats  on  its 
bosom,  measuring  249,054  tons,  running  at  an  an- 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  AMERICA         213 

nual  cost  of  $39,774,194 ;  the  value  of  the  merchan 
dise  carried  on  the  river  in  1852  was  estimated  at 
$432,651,240,  more  than  double  the  whole  foreign 
trade  of  the  United  States  for  that  year.  New 
Orleans,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  was  founded 
in  1719,  and  in  1850  contained  119,461  inhabitants; 
in  1810  it  had  not  18,000! 

The  Anglo-Saxon  colonists  brought  with  them  the 
vigorous  bodies  and  sturdy  intellect  of  their  race;  the 
forms  of  representative  and  constitutional  govern 
ment  ;  publicity  of  political  transactions ;  trial  by 
jury;  a  fondness  for  local  self-government;  an  aver 
sion  to  centralization ;  the  Protestant  form  of  religion  ; 
the  Bible;  the  right  of  private  judgment;  their  na 
tional  administrative  power;  and  that  stalwart  self- 
reliance  and  thrift  which  mark  the  Englishman  and 
American  wherever  they  go.  New  Spain  had  priests 
and  soldiers ;  New  England,  ministers  and  school-mas 
ters.  In  two  centuries,  behold  what  consequences 
come  of  such  causes ! 

But  America  itself  is  not  unitary ;  there  is  a  Span 
ish  America  in  the  United  States.  Unity  of  idea  and 
interest  by  no  means  prevails  here. 
'  America  was  settled  by  two  very  different  classes 
of  men,  one  animated  by  moral  or  religious  motives, 
coming  to  realize  an  idea ;  the  other  animated  by  only 
commercial  ideas,  pushing  forth  to  make  a  fortune 
or  to  escape  from  jail.  Some  men  brought  religion, 
others  only  ambition ;  the  consequence  is,  two  antag 
onistic  ideas,  with  institutions  which  correspond,  an 
tagonistic  institutions. 

First  there  is  the  democratic  idea:  that  all  men  are 
endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  natural  rights ; 
that  these  rights  are  alienable  only  by  the  possessor 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

thereof;  that  they  are  equal  in  all  men;  that  govern 
ment  is  to  organize  these  natural,  inalienable,  and 
equal  rights  into  institutions  designed  for  the  g:ood  of 
the  governed;  and  therefore  government  is  to  be  of 
all  the  people,  by  all  the  people,  and  for  all  the 
people.  Here  government  is  development,  not  ex 
ploitation. 

Next  there  is  the  oligarchic  idea,  just  the  opposite 
of  this ;  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  natural ,  inalien 
able,  and  equal  rights,  but  accidental,  alienable,  and 
unequal  powers;  that  government  is  to  organize  the 
might  of  all,  for  the  good  of  the  governing  party ; 
is  to  be  a  government  of  all,  by  a  part,  and  for  the 
sake  of  a  part.  The  governing  power  may  be  one 
man,  King  Monarch;  a  few  men,  King  Noble;  or  the 
majority,  King  Many.  In  all  these  cases,  the  mo 
tive,  the  purpose,  and  the  means,  are  still  the  same, 
and  government  is  exploitation  of  the  governed,  not 
the  development  thereof.  So  far  as  the  people  are 
developed  by  the  government,  it  is  that  they  may  be 
thereby  exploitered. 

Neither  the  democratic  nor  the  oligarchic  idea  is 
perfectly  developed  as  yet:  but  the  first  preponder 
ates  most  at  the  North,  the  latter  at  the  South  —  one 
in  the  free,  the  other  in  the  slave  States. 

The  settlers  did  not  bring  to  America  the  demo 
cratic  idea  fully  grown.  It  is  the  child  of  time.  In 
all  great  movements  there  are  three  periods  —  first, 
that  of  sentiment  —  there  is  only  a  feeling  of  the 
new  thing ;  next  of  idea  —  the  feeling  has  become 
a  thought ;  finally  of  action  —  the  thought  becomes 
a  thing.  It  is  pleasant  to  trace  the  growth  of  the 
democratic  sentiment  and  idea  in  the  human  race, 
to  watch  the  efforts  to  make  the  thought  a  thing,  and 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  AMERICA         215 

found  domestic,  social,  ecclesiastical,  and  political  in 
stitutions  corresponding  thereto.  Perhaps  it  is  easier 
to  trace  this  here  than  elsewhere.  It  has  sometimes 
been  claimed  that  the  Puritans  came  to  America  to 
found  such  institutions.  But  they  had  no  fondness 
for  a  democracy ;  the  thought  did  not  enter  their  heads 
that  the  substance  of  man  is  superior  to  the  acci 
dents  of  men,  his  nature  more  than  his  history.  New 
England  men  on  the  4*th  of  July  claim  the  compact 
on  board  the  Mayflower,  as  the  foundation  of  de 
mocracy  in  America,  and  of  the  Declaration  of  In 
dependence.  But  the  signers  of  that  famous  doc 
ument  had  no  design  to  found  a  democracy.  Much 
of  the  liberality  of  the  settlers  at  Plymouth  seems 
to  have  been  acquired  by  their  residence  in  Holland, 
where  they  saw  the  noblest  example  of  religious  tol 
eration  then  in  the  world. 

The  democratic  idea  has  had  but  a  slow  and  grad 
ual  growth,  even  in  New  England.  The  first  form 
of  government  was  a  theocracy,  an  intense  tyranny 
in  the  name  of  God.  The  next  world  was  for  the 
"  elect "  said  Puritan  theology ;  "  let  us  also  have 
this,"  said  the  elect.  The  distinction  between  cler 
ical  and  laical  was  nowhere  more  prominent  than  in 
puritan  New  England.  The  road  to  the  ballot-box 
lay  under  the  pulpit ;  only  church-members  could  vote, 
and  if  a  man's  politics  were  not  marked  with  the 
proper  stripe  it  was  not  easy  for  him  to  become  a 
church-member.  The  "  Lords  Brethren "  were  as 
tyrannical  in  the  New  World  as  the  "  Lords  Bishops  " 
in  the  Old. 

There  was  a  distinction  between  "  gentlemen,"  with 
the  title  of  Mr.,  and  men  with  only  the  name,  John, 
Peter,  and  Bartholomew,  or  the  title  "  Goodman.'" 


216  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

Slavery  was  established  in  the  New  World;  there 
were  two  forms  of  it  —  absolute  bondage  of  the  Af 
ricans  and  the  Indians ;  the  conditional  bondage  of 
white  men,  called  "  servants,"  slaves  for  a  limited 
period.  Before  the  Revolution  the  latter  were  nu 
merous,  even  in  the  North. 

The  Puritan  had  little  religious  objection  to  the 
establishment  of  slavery.  But  the  red  man  would 
fight,  and  would  not  work.  It  was  not  possible  to 
make  useful  slaves  of  Indians:  the  experiment  was 
tried;  it  failed,  and  the  savage  was  simply  destroyed. 

In  theocratic  and  colonial  times  at  the  North,  the 
democratic  idea  contended  against  the  Church;  and 
gradually  weakened  and  overcame  the  power  of  the 
clergy  and  of  all  ecclesiastical  corporations.  At 
length  all  churches  stand  on  the  same  level.  The 
persecuted  Quaker  has  vindicated  his  right  to  free 
inspiration  by  the  Holy  Ghost;  the  Baptist  enjoys  the 
natural  right  to  be  baptized  after  the  apostolic  fash 
ion  ;  the  Unitarian  to  deny  the  Holy  Trinity ;  the 
Universalist  to  affirm  the  eternal  blessedness  of  all 
men ;  and  the  philosophical  critic  to  examine  the  claims 
of  Christianity  as  of  all  religions,  to  sweep  the  whole 
ocean  of  religious  consciousness,  draw  his  net  to  land, 
gather  the  good  into  vessels,  and  cast  the  bad  away. 

The  spirit  of  freedom  contended  against  the  claims 
of  ancestral  gentility.  In  the  woods  of  New  Eng 
land  it  was  soon  found  that  a  pair  of  arms  was  worth 
more  than  a  coat  of  arms,  never  so  old  and  horrid 
with  griffins.  A  man  who  could  outwit  the  Indians, 
"  whip  his  weight  in  wild  cats,"  hew  down  trees,  build 
ships,  make  wise  laws,  and  organize  a  river  into  a 
mill,  or  men  into  towns  and  States,  was  a  valuable 
person ;  and  if  born  at  all  was  well  born.  Men  of 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  AMERICA         217 

no  family  grew  up  in  the  new  soil,  and  often  over 
topped  the  twigs  cut  from  some  famous  tree.  In 
the  humblest  callings  of  life  I  have  found  men  of 
the  most  eminent  European  stocks.  But  it  was  rare 
that  men  of  celebrated  families  settled  in  America; 
monarchy,  nobility,  prelacy  did  not  emigrate,  it  was 
the  people  who  came  over.  And  in  1780,  the  Con 
vention  of  Massachusetts  put  this  in  the  first  Article 
of  the  Constitution  of  the  State :  "  All  men  are  born 
free  and  equal,  and  have  certain  natural,  essential,  and 
inalienable  rights."  All  distinction  of  gentle  and  sim 
ple,  bond  and  free,  perished  out  of  Massachusetts. 
The  same  thought  is  repeated  in  the  constitutions  of 
many  Northern  States. 

This  spirit  of  freedom  contended  against  the 
claims  of  England.  Local  self-government  was  the 
aim  of  the  colonies.  Opposition  to  centralization  of 
authority  is  very  old  in  America.  I  hope  it  will  be 
always  young.  England  was  a  hard  master  to  her 
western  children ;  she  left  them  to  fight  their  own  bat 
tles  against  the  Indians,  against  the  French;  and 
this  circumstance  made  all  men  soldiers.  In  King 
Philip's  War  every  man  capable  of  bearing  arms  took 
the  field,  first  or  last.  The  frontier  was  a  school  for 
soldiers.  The  day  after  the  battle  of  Lexington,  a 
hundred  and  fifty  men,  in  a  large  farming  town  of 
New  Hampshire,  shouldered  their  muskets  and 
marched  for  Boston,  to  look  after  their  brethren. 

It  was  long  before  there  was  a  clear  and  distinct 
expression  of  the  democratic  idea  in  America.  The 
Old  Testament  helped  it  to  forms  of  denunciatory 
speech.  The  works  of  Milton,  Sidney,  Locke,  and 
the  writers  on  the  law  of  nature  and  of  nations,  were 
of  great  service.  Rousseau  came  at  the  right  time,  and 


218  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

aided  the  good  cause.  Calvin  and  Rousseau,  strange 
to  say,  fought  side  by  side  in  the  battle  for  freedom. 
It  was  a  great  thing  for  America  and  the  world,  that 
this  idea  was  so  clearly  set  forth  in  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  announced  as  a  self-evident  truth. 
A  young  man's  hand  came  out  of  the  wall,  and  wrote 
words  which  still  make  many  tremble  as  they  read. 

The  battle  for  human  freedom  yet  goes  on ;  its 
victory  is  never  complete.  But  now  in  the  free  States 
of  the  North  the  fight  is  against  all  traditional  forms 
of  evil.  The  domestic  question  relates  to  the  equal 
rights  of  men  and  women  in  the  family  and  out  of  it; 
there  is  a  great  social  question,  — "  Shall  money 
prevail  over  man,  and  the  rich  and  crafty  exploiter 
the  poor  and  the  simple?  "  In  the  Church,  men  ask 
-  "  Shall  authority  —  a  book  or  an  institution,  each 
an  accident  of  human  history  —  prevail  over  reason, 
conscience,  the  affections,  and  the  soul  —  the  human 
substance?"  In  the  State,  the  minority  looks  for 
the  eternal  principles  of  right;  and  will  not  heed  the 
bidding  of  famous  men,  of  conventions,  and  majori 
ties  ;  appeals  to  the  still,  small  voice  within,  which 
proclaims  the  higher  law  of  God.  Even  in  the  North 
a  great  contest  goes  on. 

The  democratic  idea  seems  likely  to  triumph  in 
the  North,  and  build  up  its  appropriate  institutions  — 
a  family  without  a  slave,  a  family  of  equals;  a  com 
munity  without  a  lord,  a  community  of  co-operators ; 
a  Church  without  a  bishop,  a  Church  of  brethren ; 
a  State  without  a  king,  a  State  of  citizens. 

The  institutions  of  the  free  States  are  admirably 
suited  to  produce  a  rapid  development  of  the  under 
standing.  The  State  guarantees  the  opportunity  of 
education  to  all  children.  The  free  schools  of  the 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  AMERICA         219 

North  are  her  most  original  institution,  quite  imper 
fect  as  yet.  The  attempts  to  promote  the  public  ed 
ucation  of  the  people  have  already  produced  most 
gratifying  results. 

More  than  half  of  the  newspaper  editors  in  the 
United  States  have  received  all  their  academical  edu 
cation  in  the  common  school.  Many  a  Methodist  and 
Universalist  minister,  many  a  member  of  Congress, 
has  been  graduated  at  that  beneficent  institution. 
The  intelligence  and  riches  of  the  North  are  due  to 
the  common  schools.  In  the  free  States  books  are 
abundant ;  newspapers  in  all  hands ;  skilled  labor 
abounds.  Body  runs  to  brain,  and  work  to  thought. 
The  head  saves  the  hands.  Under  the  benignant  in 
fluence  of  public  education,  the  children  of  the  Irish 
emigrant,  poor  and  despised,  grow  up  to  equality  with 
the  descendants  of  the  rich ;  two  generations  will  ef 
face  the  difference  between  them.  I  have  seen,  of  a 
Sunday  afternoon,  a  thousand  young  Irish  women, 
coming  out  of  a  Catholic  church,  all  well  dressed,  with 
ribbons  and  cheap  ornaments,  to  help  elevate  their 
self-respect;  and  when  remembering  the  condition  of 
these  same  women  in  their  native  land,  barefoot,  dirty, 
mendicant,  perhaps  thievish,  glad  of  a  place  to  serve 
at  two  pounds  a  year,  I  have  begun  to  see  the  impor 
tance  of  America  to  the  world;  and  have  felt  as  John 
Adams,  when  he  wrote  in  his  diary,  "  I  always  con 
sider  the  settlement  of  America  with  reverence  and 
wonder,  as  the  opening  of  a  grand  scene  and  design 
of  Providence,  for  the  illumination  of  the  ignorant, 
and  the  emancipation  of  the  slavish  part  of  man 
kind,  all  over  the  earth." 

The  educational  value  of  American  institutions,  in 
the  free  States  is  seldom  appreciated.  The  schools 


220  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

open  to  all,  where  all  classes  of  the  people  freely  min 
gle,  and  the  son  of  a  rude  man  is  brought  into  con 
tact  with  the  good  manners  and  self-respectful  de 
portment  of  children  from  more  fortunate  homes; 
the  churches,  where  everybody  is  welcome  (if  not 
black);  the  business  which  demands  intelligence,  and 
educates  the  great  mass  of  the  people;  the  public 
lectures,  delivered  in  all  the  considerable  towns  of 
New  England,  the  winter  through ;  the  newspapers 
abundant,  cheap,  discussing  everything  with  as  little 
reserve  as  the  summer  wind;  the  various  social  meet 
ings  of  incorporated  companies  to  discuss  their  af 
fairs;  the  constitution  of  the  towns,  with  their  meet 
ings,  two  or  three  times  a  year,  when  officers  are 
chosen,  and  taxes  voted,  and  all  municipal  affairs 
abundantly  discussed ;  the  public  proceedings  of  the 
courts  of  law,  so  instructive  to  jurors  and  spectators; 
the  local  legislatures  of  the  States  —  each  consisting 
of  from  two  to  four  hundred  members,  and  in  session 
four  or  five  months  of  the  year;  the  politics  of  the 
nation  brought  home  to  every  voter  in  the  land  — 
all  these  things  form  an  educational  power  of  im 
mense  value,  for  such  a  development  of  the  lower 
intellectual  faculties,  as  men  esteem  most  in  these 
days. 

But  the  oligarchic  idea  is  also  at  work.  You  meet 
this  in  all  parts  of  the  land,  diligently  seeking  to  or- 
.ganize  itself.  It  takes  no  new  forms,  however,  which 
are  peculiar  to  America.  It  re-enacts  the  old  stat 
utes  which  have  oppressed  mankind  in  the  eastern 
world ;  it  attempts  to  revive  the  institutions  that  have 
cursed  other  lands  in  darker  days.  Now  the  few 
tyrannize  over  the  many,  and  devise  machinery  to  op 
press  their  fellow-mortals;  then  the  majority  thus 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  AMERICA 

tyrannize  over  the  few,  over  the  minority.  There 
are  two  forms  of  democracy  —  the  satanic  and  the 
celestial :  one  is  selfishness,  which  knows  no  higher  law ; 
the  other  philanthropy,  that  bows  to  the  justice  of 
the  Infinite  God,  with  "  Thy  will  be  done."  In  Amer 
ica  we  find  both  —  the  democratic  devil  and  the  dem 
ocratic  angel. 

The  idea  of  the  North  is  preponderatingly  demo 
cratic  in  the  better  sense  of  the  word;  new  justice  is 
organized  in  the  laws ;  government  becomes  more  and 
more  of  all,  by  all,  and  for  all.  You  trace  the  prog 
ress  of  humanity,  of  liberty,  equality,  and  frater 
nity  in  the  constitution  of  the  free  States  from  Mas 
sachusetts  to  Wisconsin. 

But  in  the  Southern  States  the  oligarchic  idea  pre 
vails  to  a  much  greater  extent,  and  becomes  more 
and  more  apparent  and  powerful.  The  South  has 
adopted  the  institution  of  slavery,  elsewhere  discarded, 
and  clings  to  it  with  strange  tenacity.  In  South 
Carolina  the  possession  of  slaves  is  made  the  condi 
tion,  sine  qua  non,  of  eligibility  to  certain  offices.  The 
constitution  provides  that  a  citizen  shall  not  "  be 
eligible  to  a  seat  in  the  House  of  Representatives, 
unless  legally  seized  and  possessed  in  his  own  right, 
of  a  settled  freehold  estate  of  five  hundred  acres  of 
land,  and  ten  negroes."  * 

The  Puritans  of  New  England  made  no  very  strong 
objection  to  slavery.  It  was  established  in  all  the 
colonies  of  the  North  and  South.  White  servitude 
continued  till  the  Revolution.  As  late  as  1757,  white 
men  were  kidnapped,  "  spirited  away,"  as  it  was 
called  in  Scotland,  and  sold  in  the  colonies. 

Negro     slavery     began     early.     Even    the    gentler 

*  Art.  I,  §  6. 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

Puritans  at  Plymouth  had  the  Anglo-Saxon  antipathy 
to  the  colored  race.  The  black  man  must  sit  aloof  from 
the  whites  in  the  meeting-house,  in  a  negro  pew ;  he 
must  "not  be  joined  unto  them  in  burial;"  a  place 
was  set  apart  in  the  graveyard  at  Plymouth,  for 
colored  people,  and  still  remains  as  from  time  imme 
morial.  In  1851,  an  abolitionist,  before  his  death, 
insisted  on  being  buried  with  the  objects  of  his  ten 
der  solicitude.  The  request  was  complied  with. 

After  the  Revolution,  the  Northern  States  grad 
ually  abolished  slavery,  though  not  without  violent 
opposition  in  some  places.  In  1788  three  colored 
persons  were  kidnapped  at  Boston  and  carried  to  the 
West  Indies;  the  crime  produced  a  great  excitement, 
and  led  to  executive  and  legislative  action.  The  same 
year,  the  General  Presbyterian  Assembly  of  America 
issued  a  pastoral  letter,  recommending  "  the  abolition 
of  slavery,  and  the  instruction  of  the  negroes  in  let 
ters  and  religion."  In  1790,  Dr.  Franklin,  presi 
dent  of  the  "  Pennsylvania  Society  for  the  Abolition 
of  Slavery,"  signed  a  memorial  to  Congress,  asking 
that  body  "  to  countenance  the  restoration  of  liberty 
to  the  unhappy  men  who  alone  in  this  land  of  free 
dom  are  degraded  into  perpetual  bondage,  and  who, 
amid  the  general  joy  of  surrounding  provinces,  are 
groaning  in  servile  subjection;  that  you  will  devise 
means  for  removing  this  inconsistency  from  the  char 
acter  of  the  American  people ;  that  you  will  permit 
mercy  and  justice  towards  this  distressed  race;  and 
that  you  will  step  to  the  very  verge  of  the  power 
vested  in  you  for  discouraging  every  species  of  traf 
fic  in  the  persons  of  our  fellow-men." 

The  memorial  excited  a  storm  of  debate.  Slavery 
was  defended  as  a  measure  of  political  economy,  and  a 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  AMERICA 

principle  of  humanity,  South  Carolina  leading  in  the 
defense  of  her  favorite  institution.  Yet  many  emi 
nent  Southern  men  were  profoundly  convinced  of  the 
injustice  of  slavery;  others  saw  it  was  a  bad  tool  to 
work  with. 

Since  that  time  the  Southern  idea  of  slavery  appears 
to  have  changed.  Formerly,  it  was  granted  by  the 
defenders  of  slavery  that  it  was  wrong ;  but  they 
maintained:  1.  That  Americans  were  not  responsible 
for  the  wrong,  as  England  had  imposed  it  upon  the 
colonies.  2.  That  it  was  profitable  to  the  owners 
of  slaves.  3.  That  it  was  impossible  to  get  rid  of 
it.  Now  the  ground  is  taken  that  slavery  is  not  a 
wrong  to  the  slave,  but  that  the  negro  is  fit  for  a 
slave,  and  a  slave  only.. 

I  pass  by  the  arguments  of  the  Southern  clergy 
and  the  Northern  clergy  —  whose  conduct  is  yet  more 
contemptible  —  to  cite  the  language  of  the  prom 
inent  secular  organs  of  the  South.  The  Richmond 
Examiner,  one  of  the  most  able  journals  of  the 
South,  declares :  — 

"  When  we  deprive  the  negro  of  that  exercise  of 
his  will  which  the  white  calls  liberty,  we  deprive  him 
of  nothing;  on  the  contrary,  when  we  give  him  the 
guidance  and  protection  of  a  master,  we  confer  on 
him  a  great  blessing." 

"  To  treat  two  creatures  so  utterly  different  as  the 
white  man  and  the  negro  man  on  the  same  system,  is 
an  effort  to  violate  elementary  laws."  "  The  aphor 
isms  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  "  are  illog 
ical  when  applied  to  the  negro.  "  They  involve  the 
assumption  that  the  negro  is  the  white  man,  only  a 
little  different  in  external  appearance  and  education. 
But  this  assumption  cannot  be  supported."  "  A  law 


£24  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

rendering  perpetual  the  relation  between  the  negro  and 
his  master  is  no  wrong,  but  a  right."  "  Negroes  are 
not  men,  in  the  meaning  of  the  Declaration  of  In 
dependence." 

"  '  Haven't  negroes  got  souls  ?  '  asks  some  sepul 
chral  voice.  'Have  they  no  souls?'  That  question 
we  never  answer;  we  know  nothing  about  it.  Non 
im  ricordo;  they  may  have  souls,  for  aught  we  know 
to  the  contrary ;  so  may  horses  and  hogs." 

"  We  expect  the  institution  of  slavery  to  exist  for 
ever."  "  The  production  of  cotton,  rice,  sugar,  cof 
fee,  and  tobacco,  demands  that  which  slavery  only 
can  supply.  And  in  all  portions  of  this  Union  where 
these  staples  are  produced,  it  will  be  retained.  And 
when  we  get  Hayti,  Mexico,  and  Jamaica,  common 
sense  will  doubtless  extend  it,  or  rather,  re-establish 
it  there,  too."  * 

I  will  now  quote  a  little  from  the  Mr.  DC  Bow's 
large  work:  — 

"  No  amount  of  education  or  training  can  ever 
render  the  negro  equal  in  intellect  with  the  white." 
"  *  You  cannot  make  a  silk  purse  out  of  a  sow's  lug,' 
is  an  old  and  homely  adage,  but  not  the  less  true; 
so  you  cannot  make  anything  from  a  negro  but  ne- 
groism,  which  means  barbarism  and  inferiority."  "  As 
God  made  them  so  they  have  been,  and  so  they  will 
be;  the  white  man,  the  negro,  and  the  jackass;  each 
to  his  kind,  and  each  to  his  nature ;  true  to  the  finger 
of  destiny  (which  is  the  finger  of  God),  and  unde- 
viatingly  pursuing  the  track  which  that  finger  as  un- 
deviatingly  points  out." 

"Is  the  negro  made  for  slavery?  God  in  heaven! 
what  are  we,  that  because  we  cannot  understand  the 

*  Richmond   (Va.)   Semi-weekly  Examiner,  January  4,  1853. 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  AMERICA 

mystery  of  this  Thy  will,  we  should  dare  rise  in  re 
bellion,  and  call  it  wrong,  unjust,  and  evil?  The 
kindness  of  nature  fits  each  creature  to  fulfil 
its  destiny.  The  very  virtues  of  the  negro  fit  him 
for  slavery,  and  his  vices  cry  aloud  for  the  shackles 
of  bondage !  "  "  It  is  the  destiny  of  the  negro,  if 
by  himself,  to  be  a  savage;  if  by  the  white,  to  be  a 
serf."  "  They  may  be  styled  human  beings,  though 
of  an  inherently  degraded  species.  To  attempt  to  re 
lieve  them  from  their  natural  inferiority  is  idle  in. 
itself,  and  may  be  mischievous  in  its  results." 

"  Equality  is  no  thought  nor  creation  of  God. 
Slavery,  under  one  name  or  another,  will  exist  as  long 
as  man  exists ;  and  abolition  is  a  dream  whose  exe 
cution  is  an  impossibility.  Intellect  is  the  only  divine 
right.  The  negro  cannot  be  schooled,  nor  argued, 
nor  driven  into  a  love  of  freedom." 

"Alas  for  their  folly!!  (the  abolitionists.)  But 
woe !  woe !  a  woe  of  darkness  and  of  death,  a  woe  of 
hell  and  perdition  to  those  who,  better  knowing,  goad 
folly  on  to  such  an  extreme.  This  is,  indeed,  the  sin 
not  to  be  forgiven ;  the  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  against  the  Spirit  of  God!  The  beautiful  order 
of  creation  breathed  down  from  Almighty  intelligence, 
is  to  be  molded  and  wrought  by  fanatic  intelligence, 
until  dragged  down,  at  last,  to  negro  intelligence ! " 

Chancellor  Harper,  of  South  Carolina,  in  an  ad 
dress  delivered  before  "  The  Society  for  the  Advance 
ment  of  Learning,"  at  Charleston,  makes  some  state 
ments  a  little  remarkable :  — 

"  The  institution  of  slavery  is  a  principle  cause  of 
civilization."  "  It  is  as  much  the  order  of  nature 
that  men  should  enslave  each  other,  as  that  other  ani 
mals  should  prey  upon  each  other."  "  The  savage 
XIII— 15 


226  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

can  only  be  tamed  by  being  enslaved  or  by  having 
slaves."  "  The  African  slave-trade  has  given  and 
will  give  the  boon  of  existence  to  millions  and  mil 
lions  in  our  country  who  would  otherwise  never  have 
enjoyed  it." 

He  quotes  the  Bible  to  justify  slavery:  — 

" '  They  shall  be  your  bondmen  for  ever.' ' 
"  Servitude  is  the  condition  of  civilization.  It  was 
decreed  when  the  command  was  given,  '  Be  fruitful 
and  multiply,  and  replenish  the  earth  and  subdue  it ; ' 
and  when  it  was  added  '  In  the  sweat  of  thy  face 
shalt  thou  eat  bread.' '  Slavery  was  "forced  on  us 
by  necessity,  and  further  forced  upon  us  by  the  su 
perior  authority  of  the  mother  country.  I,  for  one, 
neither  deprecate  nor  resent  the  gift."  "  I  am  by  no 
means  sure  that  the  cause  of  humanity  has  been  served 
by  the  change  in  jurisprudence  which  has  placed  their 
murder  on  the  same  footing  with  that  of  a  freeman." 
"  The  relation  of  master  and  slave  is  naturally  one 
of  kindness."  "  It  is  true  that  the  slave  is  driven  to 
his  labor  by  stripes ;  such  punishment  would  be  de 
grading  to  a  freeman,  who  had  the  thoughts  and  as 
pirations  of  a  freeman.  In  general,  it  is  not  degrad 
ing  to  a  slave,  nor  is  it  felt  to  be  so." 

It  is  alleged  that  "  the  slave  is  cut  off  from  the 
means  of  intellectual,  moral,  and  religious  improve 
ment,  and  in  consequence  his  moral  character  becomes 
depraved,  and  he  addicted  to  degrading  vices."  To 
this  the  Democratic  chancellor  of  South  Carolina 
replies :  — 

"  The  Creator  did  not  intend  that  every  individual 
human  being  should  be  highly  cultivated,  morally  and 
intellectually."  "  It  is  better  that  a  part  should  be 
highly  cultivated,  and  the  rest  utterly  ignorant." 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  AMERICA 

"  Odium  has  been  cast  upon  our  legislation  on  account 
of  its  forbidding  the  elements  of  education  to  be  com 
municated  to  slaves.  But,  in  truth,  what  injury  is 
done  them  by  this?  He  who  works  during  the  day 
with  his  hands  does  not  read  in  intervals  of  leisure 
for  his  amusement,  or  the  improvement  of  his  mind." 
"  Of  the  many  slaves  whom  I  have  known  capable  of 
reading,  I  have  never  known  one  to  read  anything  but 
the  Bible,  and  this  task  they  imposed  on  themselves 
as  matter  of  duty."  "  Their  minds  generally  show 
a  strong  religious  tendency,  .  .  .  and  perhaps  their 
religious  notions  are  not  much  more  extravagant 
than  those  of  a  large  portion  of  the  free  popula 
tion  of  our  country."  "  It  is  certainly  the  master's 
interest  that  they  should  have  proper  religious  senti 
ments." 

"  A  knowledge  of  reading,  writing,  and  the  ele 
ments  of  arithmetic,  is  convenient  and  important  to 
the  free  laborer  .  .  .  but  of  what  use  would  they  be 
to  the  slave?  "  "  Would  you  do  a  benefit  to  the  horse 
or  the  ox  by  giving  him  a  cultivated  understanding  or 
fine  feelings?"* 

"  The  law  has  not  provided  for  making  those  mar 
riages  [of  slaves]  indissoluble;  nor  could  it  do  so." 
"  It  may  perhaps  be  said,  that  '  the  chastity  of  wives 
is  not  protected  by  law  from  the  outrages  of  vio 
lence.'  '  "  Who  ever  heard  of  such  outrages  being 
offered?  .  .  .  One  reason,  doubtless,  may  be  that 
often  there  is  no  disposition  to  resist,  .  .  .  there  is 
little  temptation  to  this  violence  as  there  is  so  large 
a  population  of  this  class  of  females  [slave  wives]  who 
set  little  value  on  chastity."  "  It  is  true  that  in  this 
respect  the  morals  of  this  class  are  very  loose,  .  .  . 

*De  Bow,  vol.  ii,  p.  217,  et  seq. 


228  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

and  that  the  passions  of  the  men  of  the  superior  caste 
tempt  and  find  gratification  in  the  easy  chastity  of 
the  females.  This  is  evil,  .  .  .  but  evil  is  incident 
to  every  condition  of  society." 

"The  female  slave  [who  yields  to  these  tempta 
tions]  is  not  a  less  useful  member  of  society  than  be 
fore.  .  .  .  She  has  done  no  great  injury  to  herself 
or  any  other  human  being;  her  offspring  is  not  a  bur 
den  but  an  acquisition  to  her  owner;  his  support  is 
provided  for,  and  he  is  brought  up  to  usefulness;  if 
the  fruit  of  intercourse  with  a  free  man,  his  condition 
is  perhaps  raised  somewhat  above  that  of  his  mother." 

"  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say,  that  the  intercourse  which 
takes  place  with  enslaved  females  is  less  debasing  in 
its  effects  [on  man]  than  when  it  is  carried  on  with 
females  of  their  own  caste,  .  .  .  the  attraction  is 
less,  .  .  .  the  intercourse  is  generally  casual, 
.  .  .  he  is  less  liable  to  those  extraordinary  fascina 
tions." 

"  He  [the  slave  husband]  is  also  liable  to  be  sepa 
rated  from  wife  or  child,  .  .  .  but  from  native 
character  and  temperament,  the  separation  is  much 
less  severely  felt." 

"  The  love  of  liberty  is  a  noble  passion.  But,  alas ! 
it  is  one  in  which  we  know  that  a  large  portion  of  the 
human  race  can  never  be  gratified."  "  If  some  su 
perior  power  should  impose  on  the  laborious  poor  of 
this,  or  any  other  country,  this  ['  a  condition  which 
is  a  very  near  approach  to  that  of  our  slaves ']  as 
their  undeniable  condition,  .  .  .  how  inapprecia 
ble  would  the  boon  be  thought."  "The  evils  of 
their  situation  they  [the  slaves]  but  slightly  feel,  and 
would  hardly  feel  at  all  if  they  were  not  sedulously 
instructed  into  sensibility."  "  Is  it  not  desirable  that 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  AMERICA         229 

the  inferior  laboring  class  should  be  made  up  of  such 
who  will  conform  to  their  condition  without  painful 
aspirations  and  vain  struggles?  " 

"  I  am  aware  that,  however  often  assumed,  it  is 
likely  to  be  repeated  again  and  again :  —  How  can 
that  institution  be  tolerable,  by  which  a  large  class  of 
society  is  cut  off  from  the  hope  of  improvement  and 
knowledge ;  to  whom  blows  are  not  degrading,  theft  no 
more  than  a  fault,  falsehood  and  the  want  of  chastity 
almost  venial ;  and  in  which  a  husband  or  parent  looks 
with  comparative  indifference  on  that  which  to  a  free 
man  would  be  the  dishonor  of  a  wife  or  child?  But  why 
not,  if  it  produce  the  greatest  aggregate  of  good? 
Sin  and  ignorance  are  only  evils  because  they  lead  to 
misery." 

"  The  African  negro  is  an  inferior  variety  of  the 
human  race,  .  .  .  and  his  distinguishing  charac 
teristics  are  such  as  peculiarly  mark  him  out  for  the 
situation  which  he  occupies  among  us;  .  .  .  the 
most  remarkable  is  their  indifference  to  personal  lib 
erty."  "  Let  me  ask  if  this  people  do  not  present  the 
very  material  out  of  which  slaves  ought  to  be  made?  " 
"  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  there  may  not  be  found 
among  them  some  of  superior  capacity  to  many  white 
persons.  .  .  .  And  why  should  it  not  be  so  ?  We 
have  many  domestic  animals  —  infinite  varieties,  dis 
tinguished  by  various  degrees  of  sagacity,  courage, 
strength,  swiftness,  and  other  qualities." 

"  Slavery  has  done  more  to  elevate  a  degraded  race 
in  the  scale  of  humanity;  to  tame  the  savage,  to  civ 
ilize  the  barbarous,  to  soften  the  ferocious,  to  en 
lighten  the  ignorant,  and  to  spread  the  blessing  of 
Christianity  among  the  heathen,  than  all  the  mission 
aries  that  philanthropy  and  religion  have  ever  put 


230  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

forth."  "  The  tendency  of  slavery  is  to  elevate  the 
character  of  the  master,"  "  to  elevate  the  female  char 
acter."  "  There  does  not  now  exist  a  people  in  a 
tropical  climate,  or  even  approaching  to  it,  where 
slavery  does  not  exist  that  is  in  a  state  of  high  civili 
zation.  Mexico  and  the  South  American  republics, 
having  gone  through  the  farce  of  abolishing  slavery, 
are  rapidly  degenerating."  "  Cuba  is  daily  and  rap 
idly  advancing  in  industry  and  civilization;  and  it  is 
owing  exclusively  to  her  slaves.  San  Domingo  is 
struck  out  of  the  map  of  civilized  existence,  and  the 
British  West  Indies  shortly  will  be  so."  "  Greece  is 
still  barbarous,  and  scantily  peopled."  "  Such  is  the 
picture  of  Italy  —  nothing  has  dealt  upon  it  more 
heavily  than  the  loss  of  domestic  slavery.  Is  not  this 
evident?"* 

A  writer  in  the  same  work,  speaking  of  the  future 
of  the  South,  refers  to  the  British  and  French  West 
Indies  as  follows :  — 

"  The  mind  of  the  devout  person  who  contemplates 
the  condition  of  the  ci-devant  slave-colonies  of  these 
two  powers,  must  become  impressed  with  the  fact 
that  Providence  must  have  raised  up  those  two  exam 
ples  of  human  folly  for  the  express  purpose  of  a  les 
son  to  these  States,  to  save  which  from  human  errors 
it  has,  on  more  than  .one  occasion,  manifestly  and 
directly  interposed."  "  England  itself  .  .  .  is  in 
some  sort  the  slave  of  Southern  blacks." 

"  The  few  articles  which  are  most  necessary  to  mod 
ern  civilization  —  sugar,  coffee,  cotton,  and  tobacco 
—  are  products  of  compulsory  black  labor."  f 

Another  writer,  whom  I  take  to  be  a  clergyman  and 

*De  Bow,  vol.  ii,  pp.  222-229. 
|De  Bow,  vol.  iii,  pp.  39,  40. 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  AMERICA         231 

a  Jesuit,*  goes  so  far  as  to  forbid  all  sympathy  for 
the   sufferings   of   slaves :  — 

"  Sympathy  for  them  could  do  them  no  good,  be 
cause  a  relief  from  slavery  could  not  elevate  them  — 
could  do  them  no  good,  but  an  injury.  Hence  such 
sympathy  is  forbidden ;  "  meaning  it  is  forbidden  by 
God,  in  such  passages  as  this :  "  Thine  eye  shall  not 
pity  him"  (Deut.  xix,  13).  He  maintains  that  Af 
rican  slavery  is  a  punishment  divinely  inflicted  on  the 
descendants  of  Ham  for  his  offense.  Ham,  he  thinks, 
married  a  descendant  of  Cain,  and  his  children  inher 
ited  the  "  mark  "  set  upon  the  first  murderer ! 

Let  us  now  look  at  some  facts  connected  with  slav 
ery  in  America. 

No  nation  has,  on  the  whole,  treated  its  African 
slaves  so  gently  as  the  Americans.  This  is  proved  by 
the  rapid  increase  of  the  slave  population.  Compare 
America  in  this  respect  with  some  of  the  British 
West  Indies. 

In  seventy-three  years,  from  1702  to  1775,  the  in 
crease  of  the  colored  population  of  Jamaica  was 
158,614;  but  in  that  period  there  were  imported  and 
retained  in  the  island,  360,622;  so  the  slave-owners 
in  seventy-three  years  must  have  used  up  and  de 
stroyed  about  300,000  human  beings.  This  dreadful 
exploitation  continued  a  long  time.  From  1775  to 
1794,  about  113,000  more  were  imported;  but  in 
1791  there  were  only  260,000  colored  persons  in 
Jamaica.  In  sixteen  years,  the  loss  was  more  than 
47,000  greater  than  the  entire  importation.  To  say 
it  all  in  a  word :  in  1702,  Jamaica  started  with  36,000 
slaves;  up  to  1791,  she  had  imported  and  retained  in 

*"John  Fletcher  of  Louisiana,"  in  his  Studies  on  Slavery  in 
(119)    Easy  Lessons.     Natchez,   1852.     8vo.  pp.  xiv,  and  637. 


232  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

bondage  473,000  more;  making  a  total  of  509,000 
souls,  and  in  1791,  she  had  only  260,000  to  show  as  the 
result  of  her  traffic  in  human  souls.  There  was  a  waste 
of  249,000  lives ! 

About  750,000  slaves  were  imported  into  Jamaica 
between  1650  and  1808.  If  that  number  seems  ex 
cessive,  diminish  it  to  700,000,  which  is  certainly  be 
low  the  fact ;  then  add  all  the  children  born  in  the 
one  hundred  and  eighty-four  years  which  elapsed  be 
fore  the  day  of  emancipation  came.  Remember  that 
only  311,000  were  there  to  be  emancipated  in  1834, 
and  it  is  plain  what  a  dreadful  massacre  of  human  life 
had  been  going  on  in  that  garden  of  the  western  world.* 

About  1,700,000  slaves  have  been  imported  into 
the  British  West  Indies.  Of  all  this  number,  and  the 
vast  families  of  children  born  thereof,  in  1834  there 
were  only  780,993  to  be  emancipated. 

Look  at  the  course  of  things  in  the  United  States. 
In  1714  the  number  of  colored  persons  was  58,850 ;  in 
1850,  3,626,985. 

The  United  States  can  show  ten  Africans  now  liv 
ing  for  every  one  brought  into  the  country,  while  the 

*  The  same  thing  took  place  in  all  the  British  West   Indies. 
Look  at  the  following: 

Table  of  Slave  Population  of  British   Guiana. 
Number  in   1820  77,376 

Number  in   1826  71,382 

Number  in   1832  65,517 

Loss  in  twelve  years  11,859 

Table  of  Births  and  Deaths. 

Years.                     Registered  Births.  Registered  Deaths. 

1817  to  1820  4868  7140 

1820  to  1823  4512  7188 

1823  to  1826  4494  7634 

1826  to  1829  4684  5731 

1829  to  1832  4086  7016 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  AMERICA         233 

British  West  Indies,  in  1834,  could  not  show  one  liv 
ing  man  for  each  two  brought  thither  as  slaves.* 

A  Texan  newspaper,  the  Columbian  Planter,  of 
April  5,  1853,  deprecates  all  discussion  of  slavery,  and 
thus  speaks  of  the  slave  code  of  that  State :  —  "  We 
consider  it  the  duty  of  the  county  court  to  have  these 
local  laws  compiled  and  printed  in  a  cheap  form,  and 
a  copy  placed  on  each  plantation  in  the  county.  But 

*The  above  facts,  and  the  authorities  for  them,  are  taken 
from  a  valuable  and  readable  book,  by  H.  C.  Carey,  "The 
Slave  Trade,  Domestic  and  Foreign;  why  it  exists,  and  how 
it  may  be  extinguished."  Philadelphia,  1853.  1  vol.  12mo.,  pp. 
426.  Another  work,  by  M.  Charles  Comte,  contains  much  in 
formation  relative  to  slavery,  and  its  effects  in  ancient  and 
modern  times:  —  Traite  de  Legislation  ou  Exposition  des  Lois 
Generates  suivant  lesquelles  les  Peuples  prosperent,  deperissent, 
ou  restent  stationaires,  etc.  (3me  Edition.  Bruxelles,  1837.) 
Livre  v. 

In  De  Bow,  vol.  ii,  p.  340,  et  seq.,  is  a  statement  of  the  im 
portation  of  slaves  to  Charleston,  from  1804  to  1807,  whence  I 
construct  the  following: 

Table   of  South   Carolina  Slave-Trade   1804-1807. 
70  vessels  owned  in  England brought  19,649  slaves. 

3  vessels  owned  in  France brought     1,078  slaves. 

61  vessels  owned  in  Charleston brought    7,723  slaves. 

59  vessels  owned  in  Rhode  Island brought     8,238  slaves. 

4  vessels  owned  in  Baltimore brought       750  slaves. 

3  vessels  owned  in  other  Southern  Ports .  brought        787  slaves. 
3  vessels  owned  in  other  Northern  Ports .  brought       650  slaves. 


39,075  slaves. 

Of  these,  3433  were  imported  on  account  of  citizens  of  the 
slaveholding  States,  and  35,642  on  account  of  capitalists  in 
countries  where  slavery  was  prohibited !  Newport,  in  Rhode 
Island,  was  famous  for  the  slave-trade,  and  its  prosperity  fell 
with  that  business.  The  cost  of  paving  the  only  street  in  the 
town  paved  with  stone  was  defrayed  by  a  tax  of  ten  dollars 
on  each  slave  brought  into  the  harbor.  So  late  as  1850,  Boston 
vessels  were  engaged  in  the  African  slave-trade.  The  domestic 
slave-trade  still  employs  many  northern  vessels, — 1033  slaves 
were  shipped  at  Baltimore,  for  various  southern  ports,  in  1851. 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

we  cannot,  with  what  we  consider  the  true  policy  and 
interest  of  the  South,  open  the  columns  of  the  Planter 
for  their  publication." 

"  We  regard  the  institution  of  domestic  slavery 
as  purely  a  local  subject,  which  should  lie  at  the  feet 
of  the  Southern  press  with  deathlike  silence ;  for  its 
great  importance  will  not  admit  of  its  discussion." 

I  will  mention  three  cases  of  cruelty  which  have 
lately  come  to  my  knowledge.  A  black  free  man,  in 
a  city  of  Kentucky,  had  a  wife  who  was  a  slave.  One 
evening  her  master,  who  had  a  grudge  against  the  hus 
band,  found  him  in  the  kitchen  with  her,  and  ordered 
him  out  of  the  house.  He  went,  but  left  the  gate 
of  the  back  yard  open  as  he  passed  out.  The  white 
man  ordered  him  to  return  and  shut  it;  the  black 
man  grumbled  and  refused;  whereupon  the  white  man 
shot  him  dead !  The  murderer  was  a  "  class  leader  " 
in  the  church,  and  attended  a  meeting  shortly  after 
this  transaction.  He  was  asked  to  "  comfort  the  souls 
of  the  meeting,  and  improve  his  gift "  by  some  words 
of  exhortation.  He  declined  on  the  ground  that  he 
felt  dissatisfied  with  himself,  that  he  himself  "  needed  to 
be  strengthened,  and  wished  for  the  prayers  of  the 
brethren."  They  appointed  a  committee  to  look  into 
the  matter,  who  reported  that  he  had  done  nothing 
wrong.  The  affair  was  also  brought  before  a  mag 
istrate,  who  dismissed  the  case ! 

Here  is  another,  yet  more  atrocious.  A  slave 
holder  in  South  Carolina  had  inflicted  a  brutal  and 
odious  mutilation,  which  cannot  be  named,  on  two  male 
slaves  for  some  offense.  Last  year  the  master  at 
tempted  to  inflict  the  same  barbarity  upon  a  third 
slave.  He  ordered  another  black  man  to  help  bind  the 
victim.  The  slave,  struggling  against  them  both, 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  AMERICA 

seized  a  knife,  killed  the  master,  and  then  took  his 
own  life.  The  neighbors  came  together,  ascertained 
the  facts,  and  hung  up  the  slave's  dead  body  at  the 
next  four  corners,  as  a  terror  to  the  colored  people 
of  the  place!  No  account  of  it  was  published  in  the 
newspapers.  Slavery  "  should  lie  at  the  feet  of  the 
Southern  press  with  deathlike  silence ! " 

While  writing  this  address  I  receive  intelligence 
of  a  slave  women  recently  whipped  to  death  in  Mis 
souri.  An  incautious  German,  who  had  not  been  long 
enough  in  the  country  to  become  converted  to  Amer 
ican  Christianity,  and  so  callous  to  such  things,  pub 
lished  an  account  of  the  transaction  in  a  German  news 
paper.  The  murderers  were  not  punished.* 

*  The  following  advertisement  is  taken  from  a  newspaper 
published  in  Wilmington  (North  Carolina),  in  March,  1853. 
Nothing  in  Mrs.  Stowe's  work  is  so  atrocious;  for  American 
fiction  halts  this  side  of  the  American  fact:  — 

225  DOLLARS  REWARD. —  State  of  North  Carolina,  New  Hanover 
County. —  Whereas,  complaint  upon  oath  has  this  day  been 
made  to  us,  two  of  the  Justices  of  the  Peace  for  the  State 
and  county  aforesaid,  by  Benjamin  Hallett,  of  the  said  county, 
that  two  certain  male  slaves  belonging  to  him,  named  Lott, 
aged  about  twenty-two  years,  five  feet  four  or  five  inches 
high,  and  black,  formerly  belonging  to  Lott  Williams,  of 
Onslow  Co.;  and  Bob,  aged  about  sixteen  years,  five  feet  high, 
and  black,  have  absented  themselves  from  their  said  master's 
service,  and  supposed  to  be  lurking  about  this  county,  com 
mitting  acts  of  felony  and  other  misdeeds.  These  are,  there 
fore,  in  the  name  of  the  State  aforesaid,  to  command  the  said 
slaves  forthwith  to  return  home  to  their  masters;  and  we  do 
hereby,  by  virtue  of  the  Act  of  the  General  Assembly  in  such 
cases  made  and  provided,  intimate  and  declare,  that  if  the  said 
Lott  and  Bob  do  not  return  home  and  surrender  themselves, 
any  person  may  kill  and  destroy  the  said  slaves,  by  such  means 
as  he  or  they  may  think  of,  without  accusation  or  impeachment 
of  any  crime  or  offense  for  so  doing,  and  without  incurring 


236  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

I  will  next  proceed  to  show  some  of  the  effects  of 
democracy  at  the  North,  and  despotism  at  the  South. 

First  notice  the  effect  on  the  increase  of  population. 
In  1790,  the  entire  population  of  the  territory  now 
occupied  by  the  slave  States  was  1,961,372  exclusive 
of  Indians;  that  of  the  free  States  was  1,968,455. 

In  1850,  with  an  addition  of  immense  territories  — 
Florida,  Louisiana,  Texas,  New  Mexico  —  the  popu 
lation  of  the  slave  States  amounted  to  9,719,779;  the 
free  States  and  territories,  not  including  Oregon  and 
California,  had  13,348,371  souls.  The  population  of 
the  free  States  has  increased  about  six  hundred  per 
cent.,  that  of  the  slave  only  about  four  hundred  per 
cent. 

Let  us  compare  a  free  and  a  slave  State  which 
lie  side  by  side.  In  soil  and  climate  Kentucky  is  su 
perior  to  Ohio  —  only  the  stream  separates  them. 
Slavery  is  on  one  side,  freedom  on  the  other;  and  what 
a  difference! 

Kentucky  contains  37,680  square  miles.  It  is  well 
watered  with  navigable  rivers  —  the  Ohio,  Cumberland, 
Kentucky,  Green,  and  Salt.  The  soil  is  admirable, 
producing  abundantly  ;  the  climate  mild  and  salubrious. 
It  abounds  in  minerals  —  coal,  iron,  lead.  The  salt 
springs  were  famous  even  with  the  French  and  Indians. 
Rice,  cotton,  and  the  sugar-cane  grow  in  Kentucky. 

any  penalty  or  forfeiture  thereby. 

Given  under  our  hands  and  seals,  this  28th  day  of  February, 
1853. 

W.  N.  PEDEN,  J.  P.  [seal.] 

W.  C.  BETTENCOURT,  J.  P.     [seal.] 

225  DOLLARS  REWARD. —  Two  hundred  dollars  will  be  given  for 
negro  Lott,  either  dead  or  alive;  and  twenty-five  dollars  for 
Bob's  head,  delivered  to  the  subscriber  in  the  town  of  Wil 
mington.  BENJAMIX  HALLETT. 

March  2,  1853. 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  AMERICA 

Ohio  contains  39,964  square  miles  of  land,  no  bet 
ter  watered,  with  a  soil  not  superior,  less  favored  with 
mineral  riches,  yet  also  abounding  in  iron  and  coal ; 
the  climate  is  sterner,  the  water  power  less  copious. 

In  1790,  Kentucky  had  73,077  inhabitants;  Ohio 
not  a  white  man.  In  1800,  Kentucky  had  220,959; 
Ohio  only  45,365.  But  in  1850,  Kentucky  had  only 
982,405;  while  Ohio  had  grown  to  1,980,427  souls. 
To-day,  Kentucky  has  not  775,000  freemen,  while 
Ohio  has  more  than  2,000,000. 

In  1810,  Louisville,  the  capital  of  Kentucky,  num 
bered  4,012  persons ;  Cincinnati,  the  chief  town  of 
Ohio,  contained  9,644.  Now  Louisville  has  less  than 
50,000,  and  Cincinnati  more  than  150,000;  while 
Cleveland  and  Columbus,  in  the  same  State,  have  risen 
from  nothing  to  cities  each  containing  20,000  inhab 
itants. 

Look  next  at  the  effect  of  these  different  institu 
tions  on  the  productive  industry  of  the  different  sec 
tions  of  the  land.  In  the  North,  labor  is  respected. 
In  1845,  there  were  in  Boston  19,037  private  fam 
ilies  ;  there  were  15,744  who  kept  no  servant,  and 
only  1,069  who  had  more  than  one.  Is  Boston  poor? 
In  1854,  the  property  of  her  citizens,  taxable  on  the 
spot,  is  more  than  $225,000,000. 

In  1847,  the  real  property  in  Boston  was  valued  at 
$97,764,500  — $45,271,120  more  than  the  value  of 
all  the  real  estate  of  South  Carolina,  with  her  24,- 
500  square  miles  of  land.  South  Carolina  owns  384,- 
984  slaves ;  at  $400  a  head,  they  would  come  to  $153,- 
993,600.  The  actual  property  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Boston,  in  1854,  is  sufficient  to  buy  all  those  slaves, 
and  then  leave  a  balance  sufficient  to  pay  the  market 
value  of  all  the  houses  and  land  in  that  proud  State. 


238  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

In  1839,' the  census  value  of  the  annual  agricultural 
products  of  the  entire  South  was  $312,380,151 ;  that 
of  the  free  States,  $342,007,446.  Yet  the  South  had 
an  advantage  by  nature,  and  249,780  more  persons  en 
gaged  in  agriculture. 

The  manufactures  of  the  South  for  that  year  were 
worth  $42,178,184;  of  the  North,  $197,658,040. 

The  aggregate  earnings  of  all  the  South  were  $403,- 
429,718,  of  the  North,  $658,705,108.  The  entire 
earnings  of  the  two  Carolinas,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Mis 
sissippi,  and  Louisiana,  amounted  to  $189,321,719 ; 
those  of  New  York  to  $193,806,433. 

Omitting  the  territories  and  California  from  the  es 
timate,  in  1850,  the  fifteen  slave  States  contained  190,- 
297,188  acres  of  land  in  farms;  the  fifteen  Northern 
States  only  97,087,778  acres.  But  the  Northern 
farms  were  worth  $283,023,483,  while  the  Southern 
were  valued  at  only  $253,583,234.  The  South  has 
93,000,000  acres  the  most  land,  and  it  is  worth  $30,- 
000,000  the  least. 

The  South  has  invested  $95,918,842  in  manufac 
turing  establishments  which  give  an  annual  return  of 
$167,906,350:  while  the  North  has  $431,290,351  in 
manufactures,  with  a  yearly  earning  of  $845,430,428. 

In  1853  the  South  had  438,297  tons  of  shipping; 
at  $40  a  ton  it  was  worth  $17,331,880.  The  North 
had  3,831,047  tons,  worth  $153,241,880. 

On  the  1st  of  September,  1852,  the  South  had 
2,144  miles  of  railroad;  the  North  9,661  miles.  The 
cost  of  1,140  miles  of  railroad  in  Massachusetts  with 
its  equipment  was  $56,559,982. 

In  1850,  the  aggregate  value  of  all  the  property 
real  and  personal  of  the  fifteen  slave  States  was  $2, 
755,411,554;  that  of  fifteen  free  States  —  omitting 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  AMERICA         239 

California  —  was  $3,186,683,924.  But  in  the  South 
ern  estimate  the  value  of  the  working1  men  is  included ; 
appraising  the  3,200,412  at  $400  apiece,  they  come 
to  $1,280,164,800 ;  deduct  this  from  the  gross  sum  and 
there  remains  $1,475,246,754  as  the  worth  of  all  the 
material  property  of  all  the  persons  in  the  fifteen  slave 
States;  while  the  inhabitants  of  the  free  States  have 
material  property  amounting  to  $3,186,683,924. 

The  different  effects  of  democracy  and  despotism 
appear  in  the  higher  forms  of  industry  —  the  inven 
tions  which  perform  the  work  of  human  hands.  From 
1790  to  1849,  there  were  16,514  patents  granted  for 
inventions  made  in  the  free  States,  and  only  2,202  in 
the  slave  States.  I  omit  patents  granted  to  citizens  of 
the  district  of  Columbia,  and  to  foreigners.  In  1851, 
64  patents  were  granted  to  citizens  of  the  slave  States ; 
656  to  those  of  the  free  States.  Besides,  many  of 
the  Southern  patents  are  granted  to  men  born  and 
bred  at  the  North. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say,  that  the  machinery  of 
Pennsylvania,  New  York,  and  Massachusetts,  driven 
by  water  and  steam,  earns  every  year  more  than  all 
the  3,000,000  slaves  of  the  entire  South.  Even  Chan 
cellor  Harper  confesses  that  "  free  labor  is  cheaper 
than  the  labor  of  slaves."  The  South  kidnaps  men, 
breeds  them  as  cattle,  brands  them  as  cattle,  beats  them 
as  cattle,  sells  them  as  cattle  —  does  not  know  "  whether 
they  have  a  soul  or  not  " ;  declares  them  cursed  by 
God,  not  fit  for  human  sympathy,  incapable  of  devel 
opment,  indifferent  to  liberty,  to  chastity,  without  nat 
ural  affection ;  breaks  up  their  marriages,  forbids  them 
to  be  taught  reading  and  writing  —  behold  the  prac 
tical  results ! 

Look  at  the  effect  of  these  two  institutions,  the  dem- 


240  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

ocratic  and  the  despotic,  on  the  intellectual  education 
of  the  people,  in  the  North  and  South. 

In  1839,  there  were  in  the  slave  States,  at  schools 
and  colleges,  301,172  pupils;  in  the  free  States, 
2,212,444  pupils  at  school  and  college.  New  York 
sends,  to  school  and  college,  more  than  twice  as  many 
young  persons  as  all  the  slave  States. 

At  that  time  there  were  in  Connecticut  163,843  free 
persons  over  twenty  years  of  age;  of  these  only  526 
were  unable  to  read  and  write.  In  South  Carolina, 
there  were  111,663  free  persons  over  twenty,  and  of 
these  20,615  were  reported  as  unable  to  write  or  read. 
The  ignorant  men  of  Connecticut  were  almost  all  for 
eigners,  those  of  South  Carolina  natives  of  that  soil. 
A  sixth  part  of  the  voters  of  South  Carolina  are  un 
able  to  read  the  ballot  they  cast. 

According  to  the  census  of  1850,  in  the  year  1849, 
the  South  paid  $2,717,771  for  public  schools;  the 
North  $6,834,388.  The  South  had  976,966  children 
at  school;  the  North,  3,106,961. 

The  South  had  2,867,567  native  whites  over  twenty 
years  of  age ;  of  these  532,605  were  unable  even  to  read 
—  more  than  eighteen  per  cent.  In  the  North  there 
were  6,649,001  native  whites  over  twenty,  and  only 
278,575  thus  illiterate  —  not  four  and  one-fourth  per 
cent. 

In  1850,  there  were  in  the  United  States  2,800 
newspapers  and  other  periodicals,  from  the  daily  to 
the  quarterly,  issuing  annually  about  422,700,000 
copies,  to  about  5,000,000  subscribers.  Of  these 
journals,  716  were  in  the  slave  States  —  including 
those  printed  in  the  capital  of  America  —  and  2,084 
in  the  free  States.  The  circulation  of  Southern  peri 
odicals,  however,  is  limited :  their  average  is  not  more 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  AMERICA         241 

than  one-half  or  two-thirds  that  of  the  northern  jour 
nals. 

Almost  all  who  are  eminent  in  science,  literature,  or 
art  —  naturalists,  historians,  poets,  preachers  —  are 
Northern  men.  The  Southern  pulpit  produces  noth 
ing  remarkable  but  evidences  of  the  divinity  of 
slavery. 

The  respective  military  power  of  the  democratic  and 
despotic  institutions  was  abundantly  tested  in  the  Rev 
olutionary  War.  From  1775  to  1783,  the  free  pop 
ulation  of  the  slave  States  was  1,307,549;  there  were 
also  657,527  slaves.  New  England  contained  673,- 
215  free  persons,  and  3,886  slaves.  During  the  nine 
years  of  that  war,  the  slave  States  furnished  the  con 
tinental  army  with  58,421  regular  soldiers ;  New  Eng 
land  alone  furnished  118,380  regulars.  The  slave 
States  had  also  12,719  militia-men,  and  New  England 
46,048  militia-men. 

After  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  when  the  States  in 
Congress  were  called  on  to  furnish  soldiers,  South 
Carolina,  in  consequence  of  her  "  peculiar  institu 
tions,"  asked  that  hers  might  remain  at  home.  In 
1779  (March  29th)  a  committee  of  Congress  reported 
that  "  the  State  of  South  Carolina  is  unable  to  make 
any  effectual  effort,  with  militia,  by  reason  of  the 
great  proportion  of  the  citizens  necessary  to  remain  at 
home,  to  prevent  insurrection  among  the  negroes,  and 
prevent  the  desertion  of  them  to  the  enemy."  From 
1775  to  1783,  South  Carolina  contained  166,018  free 
persons,  Connecticut  only  158,760.  During  the  nine 
years  of  the  war,  South  Carolina  sent  5,508  soldiers  to 
the  army,  and  Connecticut  39,831.  While  the  six 
slave  States  could  raise  only  58,421  soldiers,  and  12,- 
779  militia-men,  Massachusetts  alone  contributed  67,- 
XIII— 16 


242  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

937  soldiers  to  the  continental  army,  and  15,155  mi 
litia-men  —  in  all  83,092  ! 

The  demoralizing  influence  of  American  despotism 
is  fearfully  obvious  in  the  conduct  of  the  general  gov 
ernment.  It  debases  the  legislative  and  the  executive 
power ;  the  Supreme  Court  is  its  venal  prostitute.  You 
remember  the  inaugural  of  President  Pierce :  — 

"  I  believe  that  involuntary  servitude  is  recognized 
by  the  Constitution.  I  believe  that  it  stands  like  any 
other  admitted  right.  I  hold  that  the  laws  of  1850, 
commonly  called  the  'compromise  measures,'  are 
strictly  constitutional,  and  to  be  unhesitatingly  car 
ried  out."  "The  laws  to  enforce  these  [rights 
to  property  in  the  body  and  soul  of  men]  should  be 
respected  and  obeyed,  not  with  a  reluctance  encour 
aged  by  abstract  opinions  as  to  their  propriety  in  a 
different  state  of  society,  but  cheerfully,  and  accord 
ing  to  the  decisions  of  the  tribunal  to  which  their  ex 
position  belongs." 

The  effect  of  slavery  on  the  morality  of  the  North 
is  painful  to  reflect  upon.  Northern  merchants  en 
gage  in  the  internal  slave  trade ;  in  the  foreign  slave 
trade ;  they  own  plantations  at  the  South ;  they  lend 
money  to  the  South,  and  take  slaves  as  security.  The 
Northern  church  is  red  with  the  guilt  of  bondage ;  most 
of  its  eminent  preachers  are  deadly  enemies  to  the  free 
dom  of  the  African.  How  many  clerical  defenders 
has  the  Fugitive  Slave  Act  found  in  the  North?  The 
court-house  furnished  kidnappers  at  Philadelphia,  New 
York,  and  Boston;  the  church  justified  them  in  the 
name  of  God.  I  know  of  no  church  which  has  ever 
showed  itself  more  cowardly  than  the  American. 
Since  1849,  the  Bible  Society  dares  not  distribute  the 
Scriptures  to  slaves.  The  American  Tract  Society 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  AMERICA         243 

adapts  its  publications  to  the  Southern  market,  by 
expunging  every  word  hostile  to  the  patriarchal  insti 
tution.  Mr.  Gurney  says,  "  If  this  love  had  always 
prevailed  among  professing  Christians,  where  would 
have  been  the  sword  of  the  crusader?  Where  the  Af 
rican  slave-trade?  Where  the  odious  system  which 
permits  to  man  a  property  in  his  fellow-man,  and  con 
verts  rational  beings  into  marketable  chattels?  "  The 
American  Tract  Society  alters  the  text,  and  instead  of 
what  I  have  italicized,  it  prints :  "  Where  the  tortures 
of  the  Inquisition?  Where  every  system  of  oppres 
sion  and  wrong  by  which  he  who  has  the  power  revels 
in  luxury  and  ease  at  the  expense  of  his  fellow-men ! " 

In  1850  and  1851,  the  most  prominent  preachers  in 
the  North  came  out  in  public  and  justified  the  kidnap 
ping  of  men  in  Philadelphia,  New  York,  and  Boston. 
It  is  true  some  noble  ministers  lifted  up  their  voices 
against  it;  but  the  theological  leaders  went  for  man- 
stealing,  and  knew  no  higher  law. 

Commercial  and  political  journals  denounced  every 
minister  who  applied  the  Golden  Rule  of  the  Gospel  to 
the  poor  fugitives  from  slavery.  Several  clergymen 
were  driven  from  their  parishes  in  Massachusetts,  be 
cause  they  preached  against  kidnapping.  Metropoli 
tan  newspapers  invited  merchants  to  refuse  to  trade 
with  towns  where  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  was  unpopu 
lar;  lawyers  and  doctors  opposed  to  slavery  must  not 
be  employed. 

Anti-Slavery  sentiments  are  carefully  excluded 
from  school-books:  the  writers  want  a  Southern  mar 
ket.  The  principal  men  in  the  Northern  colleges  ap 
pear  to  be  on  the  side  of  oppression.  The  political 
and  commercial  press  of  the  North  is  mainly  on  the 
side  of  the  slaveholder.  While  preparing  this  paper 


244  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

I  find  in  a  Northern  newspaper  (the  Boston  Courier, 
of  April  26,  1853)  an  advertisement  as  follows:  — 


A   BABE    CHANCE    FOB    CAPITALISTS! 
FOB    SALE. 


"  The    Pulaski    House,    at    Savannah,    and    Furniture,    and    a 
number  of  PBIME  NEGBOES,  accustomed  to  hotel  business,"  etc. 

The  advertisement  is  dated  "  Savannah,  1.9th  April." 

On  that  day,  1851,  Boston  landed  at  Savannah  a 
man  whom  she  had  kidnapped  in  her  own  streets ;  on 
that  day,  in  1775,  a  few  miles  from  Boston,  a  handful 
of  farmers  and  mechanics  first  drew  the  sword  of 
America  against  the  oppressions  of  her  parent,  "  in  the 
sacred  cause  of  God  and  their  country."  Nemesis  is 
never  asleep !  If  men  are  to  be  advertised  for  sale  in 
a  Boston  newspaper,  it  is  well  that  the  advertisement 
should  date  from  the  battle  of  Lexington,  or  the 
Declaration  of  Independence. 

Last  year  the  State  of  Illinois  passed  "  An  Act  to 
prevent  the  immigration  of  free  negroes  "  into  that 
State.  A  man  who  brings  a  free  negro  or  mulatto 
into  the  State  is  to  be  fined  not  less  than  $100,  nor  more 
than  $500,  and  to  be  imprisoned  not  more  than  a  year. 
Every  negro  thus  coming,  shall  be  fined  fifty  dollars, 
and,  if  unable  to  pay,  shall  be  sold  to  any  person 
"  who  will  pay  said  fine  and  costs,  for  the  shortest 
time."  "  Every  person  who  shall  have  one-fourth 
negro  blood  shall  be  deemed  a  mulatto."  Delaware 
has  just  passed  a  similar  law,  though  with  penalties 
less  severe. 

In  the  commercial  journals  of  the  free  and  the  slave 
States,  the  most  scandalous  abuse  has  been  poured  out 
upon  Mrs.  Stowe  for  her  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  and 
its  key.  "  Priestess  of  Darkness  "  is  one  of  the  pleas- 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  AMERICA         245 

ant  epithets  applied  to  her.  The  Duchess  of  Suther 
land  receives,  also,  a  large  share  of  abuse  from  the 
same  quarter.  When  the  kidnapper  is  honored;  when 
"  prime  negroes  "  are  advertised  for  sale ;  when  clergy 
men  recommend  man-stealing  in  the  name  of  Christ 
and  of  God,  it  is  very  proper  that  ladies  of  genius  and 
philanthropy  should  be  held  up  as  objects  of  scorn 
and  contempt !  Men  who  know  no  law  higher  than 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  must  work  after  their  kind. 

It  is  a  strange  spectacle  which  America  just  now 
offers.  Exiles  flee  hither,  four  hundred  thousand  in  a 
year,  and  are  welcome ;  while  Americans  born  take  their 
lives  in  their  hand,  and  fly  to  Canada,  to  Nova  Scotia, 
for  an  asylum.  Unsuccessful  "  rebels,"  who  have 
committed  "  treason  "  at  home,  find  a  shelter  in  Amer 
ica,  a  welcome,  and  the  protection  of  the  democratic 
government ;  while  3,300,000  men,  guilty  of  no  crime, 
are  kept  in  a  bondage  worse  than  Siberian.  The 
"chief  judicial  officer"  of  South  Carolina  thinks  of 
all  "  distinguishing  characteristics "  of  the  negroes 
"  the  most  remarkable  is  their  indifference  to  personal 
liberty."  But  democratic  Calhoun,  with  Clay,  Web 
ster,  and  all  the  leaders  of  the  South,  must  unite  to 
make  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  and  hinder  those  men 
who  are  indifferent  to  personal  liberty  from  running 
away !  After  all  the  tumult,  fifteen  hundred  fugitives 
got  safely  out  of  the  slave  soil  of  the  United  States  in 
the  year  1853.  Alas,  they  must  escape  to  the  terri 
tories  of  a  monarch!  Every  foot  of  monarchic 
British  soil  can  change  a  slave  to  a  free  man ; 
while  in  all  the  three  million  square  miles  of  democratic 
America,  there  is  not  an  inch  of  land  where  he  can 
claim  the  natural  and  inalienable  right  to  life,  liberty, 
and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.  English  is  the  only 


246  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

tongue  for  liberty ;  it  is  also  the  only  speech  in  which 
kidnapping  is  justified  by  the  clergy  in  the  name  of 
God.  The  despots  of  the  European  continent  point 
with  delight  to  the  American  democrats  enslaving  one 
another,  and  declaring  there  is  no  higher  law. 

There  can  be  no  lasting  peace  between  the  two  con 
flicting  ideas  I  have  named  above.  One  wants  a 
democracy,  the  other  a  despotism ;  each  is  incursive,  ag 
gressive,  exterminating.  Which  shall  yield?  The  an 
swer  is  plain:  slavery  is  to  perish  out  of  America; 
democracy  is  to  triumph.  Every  census  makes  the 
result  of  the  two  ideas  more  apparent.  The  North  in 
creases  in  numbers,  in  riches,  in  the  intellectual  devel 
opment  of  the  great  mass  of  its  people  —  out  of  all 
proportion  to  the  South.  Slavery  is  a  bad  tool  to 
work  with.  In  the  South,  there  is  little  skilled  labor, 
little  variety  of  industry;  rude  farm  labor,  rearing 
corn,  coffee,  tobacco,  sugar,  cotton,  that  is  all.  At 
Boston,  at  New  York,  on  the  Kennebec,  and  the 
Penobscot,  Northern  men  build  ships  of  oak  from  Vir 
ginia,  and  hard  pine  from  Georgia ;  they  get  the  pitch 
and  tar  from  Carolina,  the  hemp  from  Kentucky  - 
that  State  which  has  no  shipping.  Labor  is  cheap  on 
the  fair  land  of  the  Carolinas,  the  best  in  the  world 
for  red  wheat;  labor  is  dear  in  Pennsylvania,  but  she 
undersells  the  Carolinas  in  the  wheat  market.  Ten 
nessee  has  rich  mines  of  iron  ore  —  the  fine  bloomer 
iron ;  slave  labor  is  cheap,  coal  abundant.  Work  is 
dear  in  Pennsylvania ;  but  there  free  labor  makes  bet 
ter  iron  at  cheaper  rates.  The  South  is  full  of  water 
power;  within  six  miles  of  the  President's  house  there 
is  force  enough  to  turn  all  the  mills  of  British  Man 
chester;  it  runs  by  as  idle  as  a  cloud.  The  South 
erner  draws  water  in  a  Northern  bucket,  drinks  from 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  AMERICA         247 

a  Northern  cup ;  with  a  Northern  fork  and  spoon  he 
eats  from  a  Northern  dish,  set  on  a  Northern  table. 
He  wears  Northern  shoes  made  from  Southern  hides; 
Northern  coats,  hats,  shirts;  he  keeps  time  with  a 
Northern  watch;  his  wife  wears  Northern  jewels,  plays 
on  a  Northern  pianoforte ;  he  sleeps  in  a  Northern  bed ; 
reads  (if  read  he  can)  a  Northern  book;  and  writes 
(if  writing  be  not  a  figure  of  speech)  on  Northern 
paper,  with  a  pen  from  the  North.  The  laws  of  Mis 
sissippi  must  be  printed  in  a  Northern  town !  The 
Southerner  has  no  market  near  at  hand,  no  variety  of 
labor,  little  that  is  educational  in  toil ;  industry  is  dis 
honorable.  It  is  the  curse  of  slavery  which  makes 
it  so! 

Three  forces  now  work  against  this  institution :  po 
litical  economy,  showing  that  it  does  not  pay;  the 
public  opinion  of  England,  France,  Germany,  of  all 
Christendom,  heaping  shame  on  the  "  model  repub 
lic  " — "  the  first  and  most  enlightened  nation  in  the 
world ;  "  the  still  small  voice  of  conscience  in  all  men. 
The  political  economist  scoffs  at  the  absolute  right ; 
the  partisan  politician  mocks  at  the  higher  law;  the 
Pharisee  in  the  pulpit  makes  mouths  at  the  invisible 
Spirit,  which  silently  touches  the  hearts  of  women  and 
of  men.  But  he  who  knows  the  world  because  he 
knows  man,  and  man's  God,  understands  very  well,  that 
though  Justice  has  feet  of  wool,  her  hands  are  of  iron. 
These  three  forces  —  it  is  plain  what  they  will  do  with 
American  slavery. 

This  institution  of  slavery  has  brought  us  into  most 
deadly  peril.  A  story  is  told  of  some  Italian  youths, 
of  famous  family,  in  the  middle  ages.  Borgia  and 
his  comrades  sat  riotously  feasting,  long  past  mid 
night,  hot  with  young  blood,  giddy  with  passion, 


248  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

crazed  with  fiery  wine.  In  their  intemperate  laughter 
they  hear  the  hoarse  voice  of  monks  in  the  street,  com 
ing  round  the  corner,  chanting  the  Miserere  as  service 
for  the  dying,  "  Have  mercy  upon  me,  O  God,  accord 
ing  to  thy  loving-kindness!  "  "  What  is  that?  "  cries 
one.  "  Oh,"  answers  another,  "  it  is  only  some  poor 
soul  going  to  hell,  and  the  priests  are  trying  to  cheat 
the  devil  of  his  due !  Push  round  the  wine."  Again 
comes  the  chant,  "  For  I  acknowledge  my  transgres 
sion,  and  my  sin  is  ever  before  me !  "  "  How  near  it 
is;  under  the  windows,"  says  a  reveler,  turning  pale. 
"  What  if  it  should  be  meant  for  one  of  us ;  let  me 
look."  He  opens  the  window,  the  torches  flash  in 
from  the  dark  street,  and  the  chant  pours  on  them, 
"  Purge  me  with  hyssop,  and  I  shall  be  clean :  wash  me, 
and  I  shall  be  whiter  than  snow !  "  They  all  spring 
to  their  feet.  "  Whom  is  it  for? "  they  cry  out. 
"  Deliver  me  from  blood-guiltiness,  O  God,  thou  God 
of  my  salvation  ;  and  my  tongue  shall  sing  aloud  of 
thy  righteousness,"  is  the  answer.  They  throw  open 
the  door  —  the  mother  of  Borgia  rushes  in :  "  You 
are  all  dead  men,"  she  cries ;  "  I  poisoned  the  wine  my 
self.  Confess,  and  make  your  peace  with  God;  here 
are  His  ministers."  The  white-robed  priests  fill  up  the 
room,  chanting,  "  The  sacrifices  of  God  are  a  broken 
spirit:  a  broken  and  a  contrite  heart,  O  God,  thou 
wilt  not  despise ! "  "  But  here  is  an  antidote  for  my 
son,"  cries  the  mother  of  Borgia.  "  Take  it !  "  He 
dashes  the  cup  on  the  ground  —  and  the  gay  com 
pany  lies  there,  pale-blue,  poisoned,  and  dead !  Shall 
that  be  the  fate  of  America?  Yes;  if  she  cast  the  cup 
of  healing  to  the  ground !  Other  admonitions  must 
come,  yet  more  terrible,  before  we  learn  for  whom  the 
Miserere  is  now  wailing  forth. 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  AMERICA          249 

If  America  were  to  keep  this  shameful  pest  in  the 
land,  then  ruin  is  sure  to  follow, —  ruin  of  all  the  dear- 
bought  institutions  of  our  fathers.  The  slaves  double 
in  about  twenty -five  years ;  so  in  A.  D.  1930,  there 
would  be  27,000,000  of  slaves!  What  a  thought! 
The  question  is  not  merely,  shall  we  have  slavery  and 
freedom,  but  slavery  or  freedom.  The  two  cannot 
long  continue  side  by  side. 


VIII 

THE  NEW  CRIME  AGAINST  HUMANITY 

1854 

Since  last  we  came  together,  there  has  been  a  man 
stolen  in  this  city  of  our  fathers.  It  is  not  the  first ;  it 
may  not  be  the  last.  He  is  now  in  the  great  slave 
pen  in  the  city  of  Boston.  He  is  there  against  the 
law  of  the  Commonwealth,  which,  if  I  am  rightly  in 
formed,  in  such  cases  prohibits  the  use  of  State  edi 
fices  as  United  States  jails.  I  may  be  mistaken.  Any 
forcible  attempt  to  take  him  from  that  barracoon  of 
Boston,  would  be  wholly  without  use.  For  besides  the 
holiday  soldiers  who  belong  to  the  city  of  Boston,  and 
are  ready  to  shoot  down  their  brothers  in  a  just  or  an 
unjust  cause,  any  day  when  the  city  government  gives 
them  its  command  and  its  liquor,  I  understand  that 
there  are  one  hundred  and  eighty-four  United  States 
marines  lodged  in  the  court-house,  every  man  of  them 
furnished  with  a  musket  and  a  bayonet,  with  his  side 
arms,  and  twenty-four  ball  cartridges.  They  are  sta 
tioned  also  in  a  very  strong  building,  and  where  five 
men,  in  a  passage-way,  about  the  width  of  this  pulpit, 
can  defend  it  against  five-and-twenty,  or  a  hundred. 
To  "  keep  the  peace,"  the  mayor,  who,  the  other  day 
44  regretted  the  arrest  "  of  our  brother,  Anthony  Burns, 
and  declared  that  his  sympathies  were  wholly  with  the 
alleged  fugitive  —  and  of  course  wholly  against  the 
claimant  and  the  marshal  —  in  order  to  keep  the  peace 
of  the  city,  the  mayor  must  become  corporal  of  the 
guard  for  kidnappers  from  Virginia.  He  must  keep 
the  peace  of  our  city,  and  defend  these  guests  of  Bos- 

250 


THE  NEW  CRIME  251 

ton  over  the  graves,  the  unmonumented  graves,  of  John 
Hancock  and  Samuel  Adams. 

A  man  has  been  killed  by  violence.  Some  say  he 
was  killed  by  his  own  coadjutors:  I  can  easily  believe 
it;  there  is  evidence  enough  that  they  were  greatly 
frightened.  They  were  not  United  States  soldiers,  but 
volunteers  from  the  streets  of  Boston,  who,  for  their 
pay,  went  into  the  court-house  to  assist  in  kidnapping 
a  brother  man.  They  were  so  cowardly  that  they 
could  not  use  the  simple  cutlasses  they  had  in  their 
hands,  but  smote  right  and  left,  like  ignorant  and 
frightened  ruffians  as  they  are.  They  may  have  slain 
their  brother  or  not  —  I  cannot  tell.  It  is  said  by 
some  that  they  killed  him.  Another  story  is,  that  he 
was  killed  by  a  hostile  hand  from  without.  Some  say 
by  a  bullet,  some  by  an  ax,  and  others  still  by  a  knife. 
As  yet  nobody  knows  the  facts.  But  a  man  has  been 
killed.  He  was  a  volunteer  in  this  service.  He  liked 
the  business  of  enslaving  a  man,  and  has  gone  to  ren 
der  an  account  to  God  for  his  gratuitous  wickedness. 
Twelve  men  have  been  arrested,  and  are  now  in  jail  to 
await  their  examination  for  wilful  murder! 

Here,  then,  is  one  man  butchered,  and  twelve  men 
brought  in  peril  of  their  lives.  Why  is  this?  Whose 
fault  is  it? 

Some  eight  years  ago,  a  Boston  merchant,  by  his 
mercenaries,  kidnapped  a  man  "  between  Faneuil  Hall 
and  old  Quincy,"  and  carried  him  off  to  eternal  slav 
ery.  Boston  mechanics,  the  next  day,  held  up  the 
half -eagles  which  they  received  as  pay  for  stealing  a 
man.  The  matter  was  brought  before  the  grand  jury 
for  the  county  of  Suffolk,  and  abundant  evidence  was 
presented,  as  I  understand,  but  they  found  "  no  bill." 
A  wealthy  merchant,  in  the  name  of  trade,  had  stolen 


252  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

a  black  man,  who,  on  board  a  ship,  had  come  to  this 
city,  had  been  seized  by  the  mercenaries  of  this  mer 
chant,  kept  by  them  for  awhile,  and  then,  when  he  es 
caped,  kidnapped  a  second  time  in  the  city  of  Boston. 
Boston  did  not  punish  the  deed ! 

The  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  was  presented  to  us,  and 
Boston  rose  up  to  welcome  it!  The  greatest  man  in 
all  the  North  came  here,  and  in  this  city  told  Massa 
chusetts  she  must  obey  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  with 
alacrity  —  that  we  must  all  conquer  our  prejudices  in 
favor  of  justice  and  the  inalienable  rights  of  man. 
Boston  did  conquer  her  prejudices  in  favor  of  justice 
and  the  inalienable  rights  of  man. 

Do  you  not  remember  the  "  Union  meeting  "  which 
was  held  in  Faneuil  Hall,  when  a  "  political  soldier  of 
fortune,"  sometimes  called  the  "  Democratic  Prince  of 
the  Devils,"  howled  at  the  idea  that  there  was  a  law 
of  God  higher  than  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill?  He 
sneered,  and  asked,  "  Will  you  have  the  '  higher  law  of 
God,'  to  rule  over  you?  "  and  the  multitude  which  oc 
cupied  the  floor,  and  the  multitude  that  crowded  the 
galleries,  howled  down  the  higher  law  of  God!  They 
treated  the  higher  law  to  a  laugh  and  a  howl !  That 
was  Tuesday  night.  It  was  the  Tuesday  before 
Thanksgiving  Day.  On  that  Thanksgiving  Day,  I  told 
the  congregation  that  the  men  who  howled  down  the 
higher  law  .of  Almighty  God,  had  got  Almighty  God 
to  settle  with ;  that  they  had  sown  the  wind,  and  would 
reap  the  whirlwind.  At  that  meeting  Mr.  Choate  told 
the  people  — "  REMEMBER !  REMEMBER  !  Remem 
ber!  "  Then  nobody  knew  what  to  remember.  Now 
you  know.  That  is  the  state  of  that  case. 

Then  you  remember  the  kidnappers  came  here  to 
seize  Thomas  Sims.  Thomas  Sims  was  seized.  Nine 


THE  NEW  CRIME  253 

days  he  was  on  trial  for  more  than  his  life ;  and  never 
saw  a  judge  —  never  saw  a  jury.  He  was  sent  back 
into  bondage  from  the  city  of  Boston.  You  remember 
the  chains  that  were  put  around  the  court-house ;  you 
remember  the  judges  of  Massachusetts  stooping, 
crouching,  creeping,  crawling  under  the  chain  of  slav 
ery,  in  order  to  get  to  their  own  courts.  All  these 
things  you  remember.  Boston  was  non-resistant.  She 
gave  her  "  back  to  the  smiters  " —  from  the  South ; 
she  "  withheld  not  her  cheek  " —  from  the  scorn  of 
South  Carolina,  and  welcomed  the  spitting  of  kidnap 
pers  from  Georgia  and  Virginia.  To-day  we  have  our 
pay  for  such  conduct.  You  have  not  forgotten  the 
"  fifteen  hundred  gentlemen  of  property  and  stand 
ing,"  who  volunteered  to  conduct  Mr.  Sims  to  slav 
ery  —  Marshal  Tukey's  "  gentlemen."  They  remem 
ber  it.  They  are  sorry  enough  now.  Let  us  forgive 
-we  need  not  forget.  "REMEMBER!  REMEM 
BER  !  Remember! " 

The  Nebraska  Bill  has  just  now  been  passed.  Who 
passed  it?  The  fifteen  hundred  "  gentlemen  of  prop 
erty  and  standing"  in  Boston,  who,  in  1851,  volun 
teered  to  carry  Thomas  Sims  into  slavery  by  force  of 
arms.  They  passed  the  Nebraska  Bill.  But  to  every 
demand  of  the  slave  power,  Massachusetts  has  said, 
"  Yes,  yes  !  —  we  grant  it  all !  "  "  Agitation  must 
cease !  "  "  Save  the  Union !  " 

Southern  slavery  is  an  institution  which  is  in 
earnest.  Northern  freedom  is  an  institution  that  is 
not  in  earnest.  It  was  in  earnest  in  '76  and  '83.  It 
has  not  been  much  in  earnest  since.  The  compromises 
are  but  provisional !  Slavery  is  the  only  finality ! 
Now,  since  the  Nebraska  Bill  is  passed,  an  attempt  is 
made  to  add  insult  to  insult,  injury  to  injury.  Last 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

week,  at  New  York,  a  brother  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Pen- 
nington,  an  established  clergyman,  of  large  reputation, 
great  character,  acknowledged  learning,  who  has  his 
diploma  from  the  University  of  Heidelberg,  in  Ger 
many  —  a  more  honorable  source  than  that  from 
which  any  clergyman  in  Massachusetts  has  received 
one  —  his  brother  and  two  nephews  were  kidnapped 
in  New  York,  and  without  any  trial,  without  any  de 
fense,  were  hurried  off  into  bondage.  Then,  at  Bos 
ton,  you  know  what  was  done  in  the  last  four  days. 
Behold  the  consequences  of  the  doctrine  that  there  is 
no  higher  law.  Look  at  Boston  to-day.  There  are 
no  chains  round  your  court-house  —  there  are  only 
ropes  round  it  this  time.  A  hundred  and  eighty-four 
United  States  soldiers  are  there.  They  are,  I  am  told, 
mostly  foreigners  —  the  scum  of  the  earth  —  none  but 
such  enter  into  armies  as  common  soldiers,  in  a  country 
like  ours.  I  say  it  with  pity  —  they  are  not  to  blame 
for  having  been  born  where  they  were  and  what  they 
are.  I  pity  the  scum  as  well  as  I  pity  the  mass  of 
men.  The  soldiers  are  there,  I  say,  and  their  trade  is 
to  kill.  Why  is  this  so? 

You  remember  the  meeting  at  Faneuil  Hall,  last 
Friday,  when  even  the  words  of  my  friend,  Wendell 
Phillips,  the  most  eloquent  words  that  get  spoken  in 
America  in  this  century,  hardly  restrained  the  multi 
tude  from  going,  and  by  violence  storming  the  court 
house.  What  stirred  them  up?  It  was  the  spirit  of 
our  fathers  —  the  spirit  of  justice  and  liberty  in  your 
heart,  and  in  my  heart,  and  in  the  heart  of  us  all. 
Sometimes  it  gets  the  better  of  a  man's  prudence,  es 
pecially  on  occasions  like  this ;  and  so  excited  was  that 
assembly  of  four  or  five  thousand  men,  that  even  the 
words  of  eloquent  Wendell  Phillips  could  hardly  re- 


THE  NEW  CRIME  255 

strain  them  from  going  at  once  rashly  to  the  court 
house,  and  tearing  it  to  the  ground. 

Boston  is  the  most  peaceful  of  cities.  Why?  Be 
cause  we  have  commonly  had  a  peace  which  was  worth 
keeping.  No  city  respects  laws  so  much.  Because  the 
laws  have  been  made  by  the  people,  for  the  people, 
and  are  laws  which  respect  justice.  Here  is  a  law 
which  the  people  will  not  keep.  It  is  a  law  of  our 
Southern  masters ;  a  law  not  fit  to  keep. 

Why  is  Boston  in  this  confusion  to-day?  The 
Fugitive  Slave  Bill  commissioner  has  just  now  been 
sowing  the  wind,  that  we  may  reap  the  whirlwind. 
The  old  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  commissioner  stands  back ; 
he  has  gone  to  look  after  his  "  personal  popularity." 
But,  when  Commissioner  Curtis  does  not  dare  appear 
in  this  matter,  another  man  comes  forward,  and  for 
the  first  time  seeks  to  kidnap  his  man  also  in  the  city 
of  Boston.  Judge  Loring  is  a  man  whom  I  have  re 
spected  and  honored.  His  private  life  is  mainly  blame 
less,  so  far  as  I  know.  He  has  been,  I  think,  uni 
formly  beloved.  His  character  has  entitled  him  to  the 
esteem  of  his  fellow-citizens.  I  have  known  him  some 
what.  I  never  heard  a  mean  word  from  him  —  many 
good  words.  He  was  once  the  law-partner  of  Horace 
Mann,  and  learned  humanity  of  a  great  teacher.  I 
have  respected  him  a  good  deal.  He  is  a  respectable 
man  —  in  the  Boston  sense  of  that  word,  and  in  a  much 
higher  sense;  at  least,  I  have  thought  so.  He  is  a 
kind-hearted,  charitable  man ;  a  good  neighbor ;  a  fast 
friend  —  when  politics  do  not  interfere ;  charitable 
with  his  purse;  an  excellent  husband;  a  kind  father; 
a  good  relative.  And  I  should  as  soon  have  expected 
that  venerable  man  who  sits  before  me,  born  before 
your  Revolution  [Samuel  May], —  I  should  as  soon 


256  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

have  expected  him  to  go  and  kidnap  Robert  Morris,  or 
any  of  the  other  colored  men  I  see  around  me,  as  I 
should  have  expected  Judge  Loring  to  do  this  thing. 
But  he  has  sown  the  wand,  and  we  are  reaping  the 
whirlwind.  I  need  not  say  what  I  now  think  of  him. 
He  is  to  act  to-morrow,  and  may  yet  act  like  a  man. 
Let  us  wait  and  see.  Perhaps  there  is  manhood  in  him 
yet.  But,  my  friends,  all  this  confusion  is  his  work. 
He  knew  he  was  stealing  a  man  born  with  the  same 
inalienable  right  to  "  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness  "  as  himself.  He  knew  the  slaveholders  had 
no  more  right  to  Anthony  Burns  than  to  his  own 
daughter.  He  knew  the  consequences  of  stealing  a 
man.  He  knew  that  there  are  men  in  Boston  who 
have  not  yet  conquered  their  prejudices  —  men  who 
respect  the  higher  law  of  God.  He  knew  there  would 
be  a  meeting  at  Faneuil  Hall  —  gatherings  in  the 
streets.  He  knew  there  would  be  violence. 

Edward  Greeley  Loring,  Judge  of  Probate  for  the 
county  of  Suffolk,  in  the  State  of  Massachusetts, 
Fugitive  Slave  Bill  Commissioner  of  the  United  States, 
before  these  citizens  of  Boston,  on  Ascension  Sunday, 
assembled  to  worship  God,  I  charge  you  with  the  death 
of  that  man  who  was  killed  on  last  Friday  night.  He 
was  your  fellow-servant  in  kidnapping.  He  dies  at 
your  hand.  You  fired  the  shot  which  makes  his  wife 
a  widow,  his  child  an  orphan.  I  charge  you  with  the 
peril  of  twelve  men,  arrested  for  murder,  and  on  trial 
for  their  lives.  I  charge  you  with  filling  the  court 
house  with  one  hundred  and  eighty-four  hired  ruffians 
of  the  United  States,  and  alarming  not  only  this  city 
for  her  liberties  that  are  in  peril,  but  stirring  up  the 
whole  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts  with  indigna 
tion,  which  no  man  knows  how  to  stop  —  which  no 
man  can  stop.  You  have  done  it  all! 


THE  NEW  CRIME  257 

This  is  my  Lesson  for  the  Day. 
My  text  is 

"  Then  one  of  the  twelve,  called  Judas  Iscariot,  went  unto 
the  chief  priests,  and  said  unto  them,  What  will  ye  give  me, 
and  I  will  deliver  him  unto  you?  And  they  covenanted  with 
him  for  thirty  pieces  of  silver.  And  from  that  time  he  sought 
opportunity  to  betray  him." — MATT.  xxvi.  14-16. 

"  Then  Judas,  which  had  betrayed  him,  when  he  saw  that  he 
was  condemned,  repented  himself,  and  brought  again  the  thirty 
pieces  of  silver  to  the  chief  priests  and  elders,  saying,  I  have 
sinned  in  that  I  have  betrayed  the  innocent  blood.  And  they 
said,  What  is  that  to  us?  see  thou  to  that." — MATT,  xxvii.  3,  4. 

[The  sermon  which  follows  was  printed  in  the  Boston  Com 
monwealth,  on  Monday,  from  the  phonographic  report  of 
Messrs.  Slack  and  Yerrinton.  They  copied  out  the  notes  at  my 
house,  and  I  revised  them.  We  did  not  complete  our  labors 
till  half-past  three  o'clock  Monday  morning.  It  may  easily 
be  imagined  that  some  errors  appeared  in  the  print  —  for  the 
perishable  body  weigheth  down  the  mind,  and,  though  the  spirit 
be  willing,  the  flesh  is  too  weak  to  work  four-and-twenty  hours 
continuously.  Yet  the  errors  were  surprisingly  few.  In  this 
edition  of  the  sermon  some  passages  have  been  added  which 
were  omitted  in  the  report,  and  some  also  which,  though  writ 
ten,  were  not  delivered  on  Sunday.] 
BOSTON,  June  10,  1854. 

Within  the  last  few  days,  we  have  seen  some  of  the 
results  of  despotism  in  America,  which  might  indeed 
easily  astonish  a  stranger;  but  a  citizen  of  Boston  has 
no  right  to  be  surprised.  The  condition  of  this  town 
from  May  24th  to  June  2nd  is  the  natural  and  un 
avoidable  result  of  well-known  causes,  publicly  and  de 
liberately  put  in  action.  It  is  only  the  first-fruit  of 
causes  which  in  time  will  litter  the  ground  with  similar 
harvests,  and  with  others  even  worse.  Let  us  pretend 
no  amazement  that  the  seed  sown  has  borne  fruit  after 
its  kind.  Let  us  see  what  warning  or  what  guidance 
we  can  gather  from  these  events,  their  cause  and  con 
sequence.  So  this  morning  I  ask  your  attention  to 
XIII— 17 


258  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

a  sermon  of  the  New  Crime  against  Humanity  commit 
ted  in  the  midst  of  us,  of  the  last  kidnapping  which 
has  taken  place  in  Boston. 

I  know  well  the  responsibility  of  the  place  I  occupy 
this  morning.  To-morrow's  sun  shall  carry  my  words 
to  all  America.  They  will  be  read  on  both  sides  of 
the  continent.  They  will  cross  the  ocean.  It  may 
astonish  the  minds  of  men  in  Europe  to  hear  of  the 
iniquity  committed  in  the  midst  of  us.  Let  us  be  calm 
and  cool,  and  look  the  thing  fairly  in  the  face. 

Of  course  you  wrill  understand,  from  my  connection 
with  what  has  taken  place  in  part,  that  I  must  speak 
of  some  things  with  a  good  deal  of  reserve,  and  others 
pass  by  entirely.  However,  I  have  only  too  much  to 
say.  I  have  had  but  short  time  for  preparation,  the 
deed  is  so  recent.  Perhaps  I  shall  trespass  a  little 
on  your  patience  this  morning,  that  hand  overrun 
ning  my  customary  hour  some  twenty  or  thirty  min 
utes.  If  any  of  you  find  your  patience  exhausted, 
and  standing  too  wearisome,  you  can  retire;  and,  if 
without  noise,  none  will  be  disturbed,  and  none 
offended. 

On  Wednesday  night,  the  24th  of  May,  a  young 
man,  without  property,  without  friends  —  I  will  con 
tinue  to  call  his  name  Anthony  Burns  —  was  return 
ing  home  from  his  usual  lawful  and  peaceful  work 
in  the  clothing  shop  of  Deacon  Pitts,  in  Brattle  Street. 
He  was  assaulted  by  six  ruffians,  who  charged  him 
with  having  broken  into  a  jeweller's  shop.  They 
seized  him,  forced  him  to  the  court-house,  thrust  him 
into  an  upper  chamber  therein,  where  he  was  surrounded 
by  men,  armed,  it  is  said,  with  bludgeons  and  revolvers. 
There  he  was  charged  with  being  a  fugitive  slave. 
A  man  from  Virginia,  claiming  to  be  his  owner,  and 


THE  NEW  CRIME  259 

another  man,  likewise  from  Virginia,  confronted  the 
poor  victim,  and  extorted  from  him  a  confession,  as 
they  allege,  that  he  was  the  claimant's  fugitive  slave  — 
if,  indeed,  the  confession  was  not  purely  an  invention 
of  his  foes  who  had  made  the  false  charge  of 
burglary ;  for  they  who  begin  with  a  lie  are  not  to  be 
trusted  after  that  lie  has  been  told.  He  was  kept  all 
night,  guarded  by  ruffians  hired  for  the  purpose  of 
kidnapping  a  man.  No  friend  was  permitted  to  see 
him;  but  his  deadliest  foes,  who  clutched  at  what 
every  one  of  us  holds  tenfold  dearer  than  life  itself, 
were  allowed  access.  They  came  and  went  freely, 
making  their  inquisition,  extorting  or  inventing 
admissions  to  be  used  for  Mr.  Burns's  ruin. 

At  nine  o'clock  the  next  morning,  Thursday  (May 
25th),  the  earliest  hour  at  which  the  courts  of  Massa 
chusetts  ever  open,  he  was  brought  to  the  court-room 
and  arraigned  before  Edward  Greeley  Loring,  judge 
of  probate,  one  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  com 
missioners  of  the  city  of  Boston,  and  immediately  put 
on  trial.  Intimidated  by  the  mob  about  him,  and 
stupefied  with  terror  and  fear,  he  makes  no  defense. 
"  As  a  lamb  before  his  shearers  is  dumb,  so  he  opened 
not  his  mouth."  How  could  he  dare  make  a  defense, 
treated  as  he  had  been  the  night  before?  —  confronted 
as  he  was  by  men  clutching  at  his  liberty  ?  —  in  a  court 
room  packed  with  ruffians,  where  the  slaveholders' 
counsel  brought  pistols  in  their  breasts?  He  had  been 
in  duress  all  night,  with  inquisitors  about  him.  His 
claimant  was  there,  with  documents  manufactured  in 
Alexandria ;  with  a  witness  brought  from  Richmond ; 
with  two  lawyers  of  Boston  to  aid  them. 

What  a  scene  it  was  for  a  Massachusetts  court !  A 
merchant  from  Richmond,  so  Mr.  Brent  called  him- 


260  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

self;  another  from  Alexandria,  who  was  a  sheriff  and 
member  of  the  Virginia  legislature  —  for  such  Colonel 
Suttle  has  been  —  they  were  there  to  steal  a  man ! 
They  had  him  already  in  jail;  they  went  out  and  came 
in  as  they  liked,  and  shut  from  his  presence  everybody 
who  was  not  one  of  the  minions  hired  to  aid  them  in 
their  crime. 

Further  they  had  two  lawyers  of  Boston  giving  them 
the  benefit  of  their  education  and  their  knowledge  of 
the  law;  and,  in  addition  to  that,  the  senior  lawyer, 
Seth  J.  Thomas,  brought  considerable  experience,  ac 
quired  on  similar  occasions  —  for  he  has  been  the  kid 
nappers'  counsel  from  the  beginning.  The  other  law 
yer  was  a  young  man  of  good  culture  and  amiable 
deportment,  I  think  with  no  previous  stain  on  his 
reputation.  This  is  his  first  offense.  I  trust  it  will 
be  also  his  last  —  that  he  will  not  bring  shame  on  his 
own  and  his  mother's  head.  I  know  not  how  the  kid 
nappers  enticed  the  young  man  to  do  so  base  a  deed ; 
nor  what  motive  turned  him  to  a  course  so  foul  as  this. 
He  is  a  young  man,  sorely  penitent  for  this  early 
treason  against  humanity.  Generous  emotions  are 
commonly  powerful  in  the  bosoms  of  the  young.  A 
young  man  with  only  cruel  calculation  in  his  heart  is  a 
rare  and  loathsome  spectacle.  Let  us  hope  better 
things  of  this  lawyer ;  that  a  generous  nature  only 
sleeps  in  him.  It  is  his  first  offense.  I  hope  he  will 
bring  forth  "  fruits  meet  for  repentance."  Judge  of 
him  as  charitably  as  you  can.  Of  Mr.  Thomas  I  have 
only  this  to  add :  —  that  he  is  chiefly  known  in  the 
courts  as  the  associate  of  Mr.  Curtis  in  attempts  like 
this ;  the  regular  attorney  of  the  stealers  of  men,  and 
apparently  delighted  with  his  work.  He  began  this 
career  by  endeavoring  to  seize  William  and  Ellen 


THE  NEW  CRIME  261 

Craft.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Democratic  party  who 
has  not  yet  received  his  reward. 

On  the  side  of  the  kidnapper  there  were  also  the 
district  marshal,  the  district  attorney,  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill  commissioner,  and  sixty-five  men  whom  I 
counted  as  the  marshal's  "  guard."  When  the  com 
pany  was  ordered  to  disperse,  and  the  guard  to  re 
main,  I  tarried  late,  and  counted  them.  I  reckoned 
sixty-five  in  the  court-room,  and  five  more  outside.  I 
may  have  been  mistaken  in  the  count. 

On  the  other  side  there  was  a  poor,  friendless  negro, 
sitting  between  two  bullies,  his  wrists  chained  together 
by  stout  handcuffs  of  steel  —  a  prisoner  without  a 
crime,  chained;  on  trial  for  more  than  life,  and  yet 
there  was  no  charge  against  him,  save  that  his  mother 
had  been  a  slave! 

Mr.  Burns  had  no  counsel.  The  kidnapper's  law 
yers  presented  their  documents  from  Alexandria, 
claiming  him  as  a  slave  of  Colonel  Suttle,  who  had  es 
caped  from  "  service."  They  brought  a  Virginia 
merchant  to  identify  the  prisoner.  He  was  swiftly 
sworn,  and  testified  with  speed.  The  claimant's  law 
yers  declared  that  Mr.  Burns  had  acknowledged  al 
ready  that  he  was  Colonel  Suttle's  slave,  and  willing 
to  go  back.  So  they  demanded  a  "  certificate  " ;  and 
at  first  it  seemed  likely  to  be  granted  at  once.  Why 
should  a  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  commissioner  delay? 
Why  does  he  want  evidence?  Injustice  is  swift  of  foot. 
You  know  what  was  done  in  New  York,  the  very  same 
week :  —  three  men  were  seized,  carried  before  a  com 
missioner,  and,  without  even  a  mock  trial,  without  any 
defense,  hurried  to  bondage,  pitiless  and  for  ever! 
Only  an  accident,  it  seems,  saved  Boston  from  that 
outrage. 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

But  there  came  forward  in  the  court-room  two  young 
lawyers,  Richard  H.  Dana  and  Charles  M.  Ellis,  noble 
and  honorable  men,  the  pride  of  the  mothers  that  bore 
them,  and  the  joy  of-  the  fathers  who  have  trained 
them  up  to  piety  and  reverence  for  the  law  of  God. 
Voluntarily,  gratuitously,  they  offered  their  services 
as  counsel  for  Mr.  Burns.  But  it  was  said  by  the 
kidnappers  that  he  did  not  want  counsel ;  that  he 
would  make  no  defense ;  that  he  was  "  willing  to  go 
back."  Messrs.  Dana  and  Ellis  did  not  wish  to  speak 
with  him,  or  seem  to  plead  that  he  might  be  their 
client.  I  spoke  with  him.  His  fear  gave  him  a  sad 
presentiment  of  his  fate.  He  feared  that  he  should 
be  forced  into  slavery.  How  could  he  think  other 
wise?  Arrested  on  a  lying  charge;  kept  in  secret 
under  severe  and  strict  duress ;  guarded  by  armed  men ; 
confronted  by  his  claimant ;  seeing  no  friends  about 
him ;  how  could  he  do  otherwise  than  despair?  If  he 
went  back  at  all,  it  was  natural  that  he  should  "  wish 
to  go  back  easily,"  fearing  that,  if  he  resisted  his 
claimant  in  Boston,  he  "  must  suffer  for  it  in  Alex 
andria."  His  conqueror,  he  thought,  would  take  ven 
geance  on  him  when  he  got  him  home,  if  he  resisted  his 
claim.  That  is  the  best  evidence  which  I  have  seen 
that  the  man  had  ever  been  a  slave:  he  knew  the  taste 
and  the  strength  of  the  slave-driver's  whip.  That  was 
not  brought  forward  in  evidence.  If  I  had  been  the 
kidnapper's  counsel  I  should  have  said,  "  The  man  is 
doubtless  a  slave ;  he  is  afraid  to  go  back !  "  When 
I  was  in  the  court-room,  as  I  was  about  to  ask  poor 
Burns  if  he  would  have  counsel,  one  of  the  guard  said 
to  me,  "  You  will  never  get  him  to  say  he  wants  a  de 
fense."  Another  more  humanely  said,  "  I  hope  he 
will ;  at  any  rate,  it  will  do  no  harm  to  try."  I  asked 
him,  and  he  said,  "  Do  as  you  think  best." 


THE  NEW  CRIME  263 

But  still  the  counsel  felt  a  delicacy  in  engaging 
under  such  circumstances.  For  they  thought  that,  if, 
after  all,  he  was  to  be  sent  to  bondage,  and  when  in  the 
hands  of  the  slave-master  should  be  tortured  the  more 
for  the  defense  they  had  made  for  him  in  Boston 
court-house,  it  would  surely  be  better  to  let  the  mar 
shal  take  his  victim  as  soon  as  he  liked,  and  allow  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Bill  commissioner  to  earn  his  "  thirty 
pieces  of  silver "  without  delay.  They  begged  for 
time,  however,  that  the  intimidated  man  might  make 
up  his  mind,  and  determine  whether  he  would  have  a 
defense  or  not. 

There  is  no  end  to  human  atrocity.  The  kidnap 
per's  lawyers  objected  to  the  delay,  and  wished  the 
trial  to  proceed  at  once  "  forthwith."  They  said  that 
the  claimant,  Colonel  Suttle,  was  here,  having  come  all 
the  way  from  Alexandria  to  Boston,  at  great  cost ; 
that  the  case  was  clear ;  that  Burns  made  no  defense : 
and  they  asked  for  an  instant  decision.  The  Demo 
cratic  lawyer  [Thomas]  thought  it  was  not  worth 
while  to  delay ;  there  was  only  the  liberty  of  a  man  at 
stake  —  a  poor  man,  with  no  reputation,  no  friends, 
nothing  but  the  "  natural,  essential,  and  inalienable 
rights  "  wherewith  he  was  "  endowed  by  his  Creator" 
—  nothing  but  that :  —  let  the  Virginia  colonel  have  his 
slave!  That  is  administration  democracy  in  Massa 
chusetts.  There  are  two  democracies  —  the  celestial 
and  the  satanic.  One  —  it  is  the  democracy  of  the 
Beatitudes  of  the  New  Testament  and  of  Jesus  Christ ; 
that  says,  "  My  brother,  you  are  as  good  as  I :  come 
up  higher,  and  let  me  take  you  by  the  hand,  and  we 
will  help  each  other."  Such  democracy  is  the  wor 
ship  of  the  great  God.  The  other  —  it  says,  "  I  am 
as  good  as  you,  and,  if  you  don't  let  me  triumph  over 


264  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

you,  I  will  smite  you  to  the  ground."  That  is  the 
democracy  of  Caleb  Gushing,  the  democracy  of  the 
administration,  and  of  a  great  many  political  men, 
Democrat  and  Whig,  and  neither  Whig  nor  Democrat. 

Commissioner  Loring  asked  Mr.  Burns  if  he  wanted 
time  to  think  of  the  matter,  and  counsel  to  aid  in  his 
defense.  I  shall  never  forget  how  he  looked  round 
that  court-room,  at  the  marshal,  at  the  kidnapper's 
lawyers,  at  the  commissioner,  the  claimant  and  his  wit 
ness !  Save  the  counsel,  whom  he  had  never  seen  be 
fore,  there  was  scarce  a  friendly  face  that  his  eye 
rested  on.  At  length  he  said  timidly,  and  catching 
for  breath,  "  Yes."  Mr.  Loring  put  off  the  case  until 
Saturday.  The  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  commissioner  was 
to  lecture  at  Cambridge  on  Friday.  He  is  a  professor 
at  Harvard  College,  and  he  could  not  conveniently  hold 
court  on  that  day.  He  is  a  judge  of  probate,  and 
looks  after  widows  and  orphans;  he  must  be  in  the 
probate  office  on  Monday.  Saturday  was  the  most 
convenient  day  for  the  commissioner.  So,  in  a  matter 
which  was  to  determine  whether  the  prisoner  should 
be  a  free  man  or  only  a  thing  which  might  be  sold  and 
beaten  as  a  beast,  the  court  allowed  him  forty-eight 
hours'  delay  !  It  really  gave  him  time  to  breathe  a 
little.  Let  us  be  grateful  to  the  commissioner !  He 
gave  more  favor  than  any  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  com 
missioners  have  done  before,  I  believe. 

You  know  the  rest.  He  was  on  trial  ten  days.  He 
was  never  in  a  court;  all  this  time  he  has  not  seen  a 
jury;  he  has  not  even  seen  a  judge;  the  process  is 
"  summary,"  not  "  summary  in  time,"  as  Mr.  Loring 
declares ;  but  it  is  "  without  due  form  of  law."  Why 
do  you  want  a  court  to  make  a  negro  a  slave  in  Bos 
ton?  Surely,  a  commissioner  is  enough  in  such  a 


THE  NEW  CRIME  265 

case.  Let  him  proceed  as  swiftly  as  he  will :  —  the 
kidnapper's  lawyers  said  — "  forthwith ;  "  not  in  a 
hurry,  but  "  immediately." 

You  remember  what  followed.  You  have  seen  the 
streets  crowded  with  armed  men.  You  have  read  the 
newspapers,  the  handbills,  and  the  posters.  You  re 
member  the  Faneuil  Hall  meeting,  when  all  the  influ 
ence  of  the  platform  scarce  kept  the  multitude  from 
tearing  the  court-house  that  night  to  the  ground.  You 
remember  the  attack  on  the  court-house  —  a  man  killed 
and  twelve  citizens  in  jail,  charged  with  crimes  of  an 
atrocious  character.  You  recollect  the  conventions  — 
Free-soil  and  anti-slavery.  You  call  to  mind  the  as 
pect  of  Court  Square  last  Monday.  Boston  never 
saw  such  an  Anniversary  Week.  There  were  meetings 
of  theological  societies,  philanthropic  societies,  reform 
atory  societies,  literary  societies :  and  Boston  was  in 
a  state  of  siege  —  the  court-house  full  of  United  States 
soldiers  —  marines  from  the  navy  yard,  troops  from 
the  forts,  from  New  York,  from  Portsmouth,  from 
Rhode  Island.  The  courts  sat  with  muskets  at  their 
backs,  or  swords  at  their  bosoms;  drunken  soldiers 
charged  bayonet  on  the  witnesses,  on  counsel,  and  on 
strangers,  who  had  rights  where  the  soldier  had  none. 
The  scene  last  Friday  you  will  never  forget  —  busi 
ness  suspended,  the  shops  shut,  the  streets  blocked  up, 
all  the  "  citizen-soldiery "  under  arms.  Ball  cart 
ridges  were  made  for  the  city  government  on  Thursday 
afternoon  in  Dock  Square,  to  be  fired  into  your  bosoms 
and  mine ;  United  States  soldiers  loaded  their  pieces 
in  Court  Square,  to  be  discharged  into  the  crowd  of 
Boston  citizens  whenever  a  drunken  officer  should  give 
command ;  a  six-pound  cannon,  furnished  with  forty 
rounds  of  canister  shot,  was  planted  in  Court  Square, 


266  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

manned  by  United  States  soldiers,  foreigners  before 
they  enlisted.  The  town  looked  Austrian.  And,  at 
high  change,  over  the  spot  where,  on  the  5th  of  March, 
1770,  fell  the  first  victim  in  the  Boston  Massacre, — 
where  the  negro  blood  of  Crispus  Attucks  stained 
the  ground, —  over  that  spot  Boston  authorities  car 
ried  a  citizen  of  Massachusetts  to  Alexandria  as  a 
slave ;  "  and  order  reigns  in  Boston  "  —  or  Warsaw, 
call  it  which  you  will. 

So  much  for  a  brief  statement  of  facts. 

Pause  with  me  a  moment,  and  look  at  the  general 
causes  of  the  fact.  Here  are  two  great  forces  in  the 
nation.  One  is  slavery,  freedom  is  the  other.  The 
two  are  hostile,  deadly  foes  —  irreconcilable.  They 
will  go  on  fighting  till  one  kills  the  other  outright. 
From  1775  to  1788,  freedom  generally  prevailed  over 
slavery.  It  was  the  period  of  revolution,  when  the 
nation  fell  back  on  its  religious  feelings,  and  thence 
developed  the  great  political  ideas  of  America.  But 
even  then  slavery  was  in  the  midst  of  us.  It  came 
into  the  Constitution,  and,  from  the  adoption  of  the 
Federal  Constitution  to  the  present  time,  it  has  ad 
vanced,  and  freedom  declined.  It  has  gone  over  the 
Alleghanies,  over  the  Rio  del  Norte,  over  the  Cordil 
leras;  it  extends  from  the  forty-ninth  parallel  to  the 
thirty-second,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific ;  it  has 
gone  into  ten  new  States,  into  all  the  territories  except 
Oregon. 

Since  the  annexation  of  Texas,  in  1845,  slavery  has 
been  the  obvious  master,  freedom  the  obvious  servant. 
Fidelity  to  slavery  is  the  sine  qua  non  for  office-holders. 
Slavery  is  the  "  peculiar  institution  "  of  the  industrial 
democracy  of  America.  Slavery  is  terribly  in  earnest, 
as  freedom  has  never  been  since  the  Revolution.  It 


THE  NEW  CRIME  267 

controls  all  the  politics  of  the  country.  It  strangles 
all  our  "  great  men."  There  is  not  a  great  Demo 
crat,  nor  a  great  Whig,  who  dares  openly  oppose  slav 
ery.  All  the  commercial  towns  are  on  its  side.  There 
is  not  an  anti-slavery  governor  of  any  State  in  the 
Union.  The  supreme  courts  of  the  States  are  all  pro- 
slavery,  save  in  Vermont.  The  leading  newspapers  are 
nearly  all  on  the  side  of  wrong  —  almost  all  the  com 
mercial,  almost  all  the  political  newspapers.  I  know  but 
few  exceptions  —  of  course  I  do  not  speak  of  those  de 
voted  to  philanthropy  —  the  democratic  Evening 
Post,  truly  democratic,  of  New  York;  and  the  New 
York  Tribune,  which  is  truly  democratic,  though  it 
hoists  another  banner.  Many  of  the  theological  jour 
nals  —  Protestant  as  well  as  Catholic  —  are  cruelly 
devoted  to  slavery.  But  proudly  above  all  the  re 
ligious  journals  of  the  land  rises  the  Independent,  and 
bears  a  noble  witness  to  the  humane  spirit  of  Chris 
tianity.  These  are  eminent  exceptions,  which  would 
do  honor  to  any  nation. 

The  friends  of  freedom  appeal  religiously  to  the 
souls  and  consciences  of  men:  piety  and  justice  demand 
that  all  be  free ;  the  appeal  immediately  touches  a  few. 
They  address  also  the  reason  and  the  understanding  of 
men :  Freedom  is  the  great  idea  of  politics ;  it  is 
self-evident  that  "  all  men  are  created  equal."  That 
argument  touches  a  few  more.  But  the  religious,  who 
reverence  God's  higher  law,  and  the  intellectual,  who 
see  the  great  ideas  of  politics,  they  are  few.  Slavery 
addresses  the  vulgar  interests  of  vulgar  men.  To  the 
slaveholder  it  gives  political  power,  pecuniary  power, 
and  here  is  an  argument  which  the  dullest  can  under 
stand,  and  the  meanest  appreciate.  Able  and  cun 
ning  men  feel  this,  and  avail  themselves  of  slavery  to 


268  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

secure  money  and  political  power.  These  are  the  ob 
jects  of  most  intense  desire  in  America.  They  are  our 
highest  things  —  marks  of  our  "  great  men."  Office 
is  transient  nobility ;  money  is  permanent,  heritable  no 
bility.  Accordingly,  slavery  is  the  leading  idea  of 
America  —  the  great  American  institution.  I  think 
history  furnishes  no  instance  of  one  section  of  a  coun 
try  submitting  so  meanly  to  another  as  we  have  done 
in  America.  The  South  is  weak  in  numbers  and  in 
money  —  the  North  strong  in  both.  The  South  has 
few  schools,  no  commerce,  few  newspapers,  no  large 
mass  of  intelligent  men,  wherein  the  North  abounds. 
But  the  most  eminent  Southern  men  are  devoted  to 
politics,  while  the  Northern  turn  to  trade:  and  so  the 
South  commands  the  North.  I  am  only  translating 
facts  into  ideas,  and  bringing  the  condition  of  Amer 
ica  to  the  consciousness  of  America.  Some  men  knew 
these  things  before,  but  the  mass  of  men  know  them 
not. 

So  much  for  the  general  causes. 

Now  look  at  some  of  the  special  causes.  I  shall  limit 
myself  chiefly  to  those  which  Massachusetts  has  had  a 
share  in  putting  into  activity. 

In  1826,  on  the  9th  of  March,  Mr.  Edward  Everett 
made  a  speech  in  Congress.  He  was  the  representa 
tive  of  Middlesex  county.  Once  he  was  a  minister 
of  the  church  where  John  Hancock  used  to  worship, 
and  as  clergyman  officially  resided  in  the  house  which 
John  Hancock  gave  to  that  church.  Next,  he  was  a 
professor  in  Harvard  College,  where  the  Adamses  — 
the  three  Adamses,  Samuel,  John,  and  John  Quincy  - 
were  educated,  and  where  John  Hancock  had  gradu 
ated.  He  represented  Lexington,  and  Concord,  and 
Bunker  Hill,  and  in  his  speech  he  said :  — 


THE  NEW  CRIME 

"  Neither  am  I  one  of  those  citizens  of  the  North 
who  would  think  it  immoral  and  irreligious  to  join  in 
putting  down  a  servile  insurrection  at  the  South.  I 
am  no  soldier,  sir.  My  habits  and  education  are  very 
unmilitary ;  but  there  is  no  cause  in  which  I  would 
sooner  buckle  a  knapsack  to  my  back,  and  put  a  mus 
ket  to  my  shoulder,  than  that."  "  Domestic  slavery 
is  not,  in  my  judgment,  to  be  set  down  as  an 
immoral  or  irreligious  institution."  "  Its  duties  are 
presupposed  by  religion."  "  The  New  Testament 
says,  '  Slaves,  obey  your  masters.' ' 

The  Daily  Advertiser  defended  Mr.  Everett,  declar 
ing  that  it  was  perfectly  right  in  him  to  justify  the 
continuance  of  the  relation  between  the  master  and  his 
slaves,  and  added  (I  am  now  quoting  from  the  Daily 
Advertiser  of  March  28th,  1826):— "We  hold  that 
it  is  not  time,  and  never  will  be,  that  we  should  be 
aroused  to  any  efforts  for  their  redemption."  That 
was  the  answer  which  the  "  respectability  of  Boston  " 
gave  to  Mr.  Everett's  speech.  True,  some  journals 
protested  against  the  iniquitous  statement;  the  Chris 
tian  Register  was  indignant.  But  Middlesex  county 
sent  him  again.  Lexington,  and  Concord,  and  Bunker 
Hill  returned  their  apostate  representative  a  second, 
a  third,  a  fourth,  and  a  fifth  time.  And,  when  he 
was  weary  of  that  honor,  the  State  of  Massachusetts 
made  him  her  governor,  and  he  carried  to  the  State 
House  the  same  proclivities  to  despotism  which  he  had 
evinced  in  his  maiden  speech. 

In  18S5,  the  anti-slavery  men  and  women  were 
mobbed  in  Boston  by  an  assembly  of  "  respectable 
gentlemen ;  "  the  mayor  did  not  stop  the  tumult,  the 
destruction  of  property,  and  the  peril  of  life !  There 
were  no  soldiers  in  the  streets  then;  nobody,  I  think, 
was  punished. 


270  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

The  next  winter,  the  General  Assemblies  of  several 
Southern  States  sent  resolutions  to  the  Massachusetts 
General  Court,  whereof  this  is  one  from  South  Caro 
lina  :  — "  The  formation  of  abolition  societies,  and  the 
acts  and  doings  of  certain  fanatics,  calling  themselves 
abolitionists,  in  the  non-slaveholding  States  of  this  con 
federacy,  are  in  direct  violation  of  the  obligations  of 
the  compact  of  the  Union." 

South  Carolina  requested  the  government 
"  promptly  and  effectually  to  suppress  all  those  asso 
ciations,"  and  would  consider  "  the  abolition  of  slav 
ery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  as  a  violation  of  the 
rights  of  citizens,  and  a  usurpation  to  be  at  once  re- 
sited."  Georgia  asked  Massachusetts  "to  crush  the 
traitorous  designs  of  the  abolitionists."  Virginia  re 
quired  the  non-slaveholding  States  "  to  adopt  penal 
enactments,  or  such  other  measures  as  will  effectually 
suppress  all  associations  within  their  respective  limits, 
purporting  to  be,  or  having  the  character  of,  abolition 
societies ;  "  and  that  they  "  will  make  it  highly  penal 
to  print,  publish,  or  distribute  newspapers,  pamphlets, 
or  other  publications,  calculated  or  having  a  tendency 
to  incite  the  slaves  of  the  Southern  States  to  insurrec 
tion  and  revolt."  How  do  you  think  Massachusetts 
answered?  In  solemn  resolutions  the  committee  of 
the  Massachusetts  legislature  declared  that  the  agita 
tion  of  the  question  of  domestic  slavery  had  "  already 
interrupted  the  friendly  relations  between  the  several 
States  of  the  Union ;  "  expressed  its  "  entire  disappro 
bation  of  the  doctrines  and  speeches  of  such  as  agitate 
the  question,"  and  advised  them  "  to  abstain  from  all 
such  discussion  "  as  might  "  tend  to  disturb  and  agitate 
the  public  mind."  That  was  the  voice  of  a  committee 
appointed  by  the  Massachusetts  legislature.  True, 


THE  NEW  CRIME  271 

it  was  not  accepted  by  the  House  of  Representatives, 
but  the  report  was  only  too  significant.  What  fol 
lowed  ? 

In  1844,  one  of  the  most  eminent  lawyers  of  this 
State  was  sent  by  Massachusetts  to  the  city  of  Charles 
ton,  to  proceed  legally  and  secure  the  release  of  Massa 
chusetts  colored  citizens  from  the  jails  of  Charleston, 
where  they  were  held  without  charge  of  crime,  and  con 
trary  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  Mr. 
Hoar  was  mobbed  out  of  Charleston  by  a  body  of  re 
spectable  citizens,  the  high  sheriff  aiding  in  driving 
him  out. 

Mr.  Hoar  made  his  report  to  the  governor  of  Mas 
sachusetts,  and  said:  — 

"  Has  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  the  least 
practical  validity  or  binding  force  in  South  Carolina, 
excepting  when  she  thinks  its  operation  favorable  to 
her?  She  prohibits  the  trial  of  an  action  in  the  tri 
bunals  established  under  the  Constitution  for  de 
termining  such  cases,  in  which  a  citizen  of  Massa 
chusetts  complains  that  a  citizen  of  South  Carolina 
has  done  him  an  injury;  saying  that  she  has  herself 
already  tried  that  cause,  and  decided  against  the  plain 
tiff." 

The  evil  complained  of  continues  unabated  to  this 
day.  South  Carolina  imprisons  all  the  free  colored 
citizens  of  the  North  who  visit  her  ports  in  our  ships. 

In  1845,  Texas  was  admitted,  and  annexed  as  a 
slave  State,  with  the  promise  that  she  might  bring  in 
four  other  slave  States. 

In  1847  and  '48  came  the  Mexican  War,  with  the 
annexation  of  an  immense  territory  as  slave  soil. 
Many  of  the  leading  men  of  Massachusetts  favored 
the  annexation  of  Texas.  New  England  might  have 


272  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

stopped  it ;  Massachusetts  might  have  stopped  it ; 
Boston  might  have  stopped  it.  But  Mr.  Web 
ster  said  she  could  not  be  aroused.  The  politicians 
of  Massachusetts  favored  the  Mexican  War.  It 
was  a  war  for  slavery.  Boston  favored  it.  The  news 
papers  came  out  in  its  defense.  The  governor  called 
out  the  soldiers,  and  they  came.  From  the  New  Eng 
land  pulpit  we  heard  but  a  thin  and  feeble  voice  against 
the  war. 

But  there  were  men  who  doubted  that  wrong  was 
right,  and  said,  "  Beware  of  this  wickedness !  "  The 
sober  people  of  the  country  disliked  the  war:  they  said, 
"  No  !  let  us  have  no  such  wicked  work  as  this !  "  Gov 
ernor  Briggs,  though  before  so  deservedly  popular, 
could  never  again  get  elected  by  the  people.  He  had 
violated  their  conscience  by  issuing  his  proclamation 
calling  for  volunteers. 

In  1850  came  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill.  You  all  re 
member  Mr.  Webster's  speech  on  the  7th  of  March. 
Before  that  time  he  had  opposed  all  the  great  steps 
of  the  slave  power  —  the  Missouri  Compromise,  the 
annexation  of  Texas,  the  Mexican  War,  the  increase 
of  slave  territory-.  He  had  voted,  I  think,  against  the 
admission  of  every  slave  State.  He  was  opposed  to 
the  extension  of  American  slavery,  "  at  all  times,  now 
and  for  ever."  He  claimed  the  Wilmot  Proviso  as 
his  "  thunder."  He  could  "  stand  on  the  Buffalo  plat 
form  "  in  1848.  But,  in  1850,  he  proffered  his  sup 
port  to  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  "  with  all  its  pro 
visions,  to  the  fullest  extent."  He  volunteered  the 
promise  that  Massachusetts  would  "  obey,"  and  that 
"  with  alacrity."  You  remember  his  speech  at  the 
Revere  House  —  discussion  "  must  be  suppressed,  in 
Congress  and  out ;  "  Massachusetts  must  "  conquer  her 


THE  NEW  CRIME  273 

prejudices  "  in  favor  of  the  inalienable  rights  of  man, 
which  she  had  fought  the  Revolution  to  secure.  You 
have  not  forgotten  his  speeches  at  Albany,  at  Syra 
cuse,  at  Buffalo;  nor  his  denial  of  the  higher  law 
of  God  at  Capon  Springs  in  Virginia  — "  The  North 
Mountain  is  very  high;  the  Blue  Ridge  higher  still; 
the  Alleghanies  higher  than  either ;  yet  this  '  higher 
law '  ranges  an  eagle's  flight  above  the  highest  peak 
of  the  Alleghanies."  What  was  the  answer  from  the 
crowd?  Laughter.  The  multitude  laughed  at  the 
higher  law.  There  is  no  law  above  the  North  Moun 
tain,  above  the  Blue  Ridge,  above  the  peaks  of  the 
Alleghany  —  is  there  ?  The  Fugitive  Slave  Bill 
reaches  up  where  there  is  no  God! 

Men  of  property  and  standing  all  over  New  Eng 
land  supported  the  apostacy  of  Mr.  Webster.  You 
remember  the  letters  from  Maine,  from  New  Hamp 
shire,  and  the  one  from  Newburyport.  I  am  sure  you 
have  not  forgotten  the  letter  of  the  nine  hundred  and 
eighty-seven  prominent  men  in  and  about  Boston,  tell 
ing  him  that  he  had  "  convinced  the  understanding  and 
touched  the  conscience  of  a  nation."  Good  men, 
whom  I  have  long  known,  and  tenderly  loved,  put 
their  names  to  that  letter.  Did  they  think  the  "  Union 
in  danger?  "  Not  one  of  them.  A  man  of  great  un 
derstanding  beguiled  them. 

You  remember  the  tone  of  the  newspapers,  Whig 
and  Democratic.  With  alacrity  they  went  for  kidnap 
ping  to  the  fullest  extent.  They  clasped  hands  in 
order  to  seize  the  black  man.  When  the  time  came, 
Mr.  Eliot  gave  the  vote  of  Boston  for  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill.  When  he  returned  to  his  home,  some  of 
the  most  prominent  men  of  the  city  went  and  thanked 

him  for  his  vote.     They  liked  it.     I  believe  no  "  emi- 
XIII— 18 


274-  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

nent  man "  of  Boston  spoke  against  it.  They 
"  strained  their  consciences,"  as  Mr.  Walley  has  just 
said,  "  to  aid  in  the  passage  of  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Act."  Boston  fired  a  hundred  guns  on  the  Common, 
at  noon-day,  in  honor  of  that  event. 

I  know  there  was  opposition  —  earnest  and  fierce 
opposition;  but  it  did  not  come  from  the  citizens  of 
"  eminent  gravity,"  whom  Boston  and  Massachusetts 
are  accustomed  stupidly  to  follow.  You  know  what 
hatred  was  felt  in  Boston  against  all  men  who  taught 
that  the  natural  law  of  God  was  superior  to  the  Fu 
gitive  Slave  Bill,  and  conscience  above  the  Con 
stitution. 

You  have  not  forgotten  the  Union  meeting  at  Fan- 
euil  Hall.  I  never  saw  so  much  meanness  and  so 
little  manhood  on  that  platform.  The  Democratic 
Herods  and  the  Whig  Pilates  were  made  friends  that 
day  that  they  might  kidnap  the  black  man.  You 
recollect  the  howl  of  derision  against  the  higher  law 
of  God,  which  came  from  that  ignoble  stage,  and  was 
echoed  by  that  ignoble  crowd  above  it  and  below  — 
speakers  fit  for  fitting  theme. 

When  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  was  proposed,  prom 
inent  men  said,  "  It  cannot  pass:  the  North  will  reject 
it  at  once;  and,  even  if  it  were  passed,  it  would  be 
repealed  the  next  day.  We  will  petition  for  its  re 
peal."  After  it  was  passed,  they  said :  "  It  can 
not  be  executed,  and  never  will  be."  But,  when  asked 
to  petition  for  its  repeal,  the  same  men  refused  — 
"  No,  it  would  irritate  the  South."  I  received  the  pe 
titions  which  our  fellow-citizens  sent  from  more  than 
three  hundred  towns  in  Massachusetts.  I  took  the 
smallest  of  them  all,  and  sent  it  to  the  representative 
of  Boston,  Mr.  Eliot,  with  a  letter,  asking  him  to 


THE  NEW  CRIME  275 

present  it  to  the  House.  He  presented  it  to  —  me! 
It  was  not  "  laid  on  the  table  "  ;  he  put  it  in  the  post- 
office.  I  sent  it  back  to  Washington,  to  some  South 
ern  or  Western  member,  and  he  presented  it  in  Con 
gress. 

The  next  Congress  reaffirmed  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Bill. 

"Twice  they  routed  all  their  foes, 
And  twice  they  slew  the  slain." 

The  new  representative  from  Boston,  Mr.  Apple- 
ton,  gave  the  vote  of  Boston  for  it.  He  was  never 
censured  for  that  act.  He  was  approved,  and  re- 
elected. 

You  remember  the  conduct  of  the  Boston  newspa 
pers.  Almost  all  of  them  went  for  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Bill.  They  made  atheism  the  first  principle  in  Amer 
ican  politics  —  "  There  is  no  higher  law."  The  in 
stinct  of  commerce  is  adverse  to  the  natural  rights 
of  labor:  so  the  chief  leaders  in  commerce  wish  to 
have  the  working  man  but  poorly  paid;  the  larger 
gain  falls  into  their  hands ;  their  laborer  is  a  mill, 
they  must  run  him  as  cheap  as  they  can.  So  the 
great  cities  of  the  North  were  hostile  to  the  slave  — 
hostile  to  freedom.  The  wealthy  capitalists  did  not 
know  that  in  denying  the  higher  law  of  God  they 
were  destroying  the  rock  on  which  alone  their  money 
could  rest  secure.  The  mass  of  men  in  cities,  serv 
ants  of  the  few,  knew  not  that  in  chaining  the  black 
man  they  were  also  putting  fetters  on  their  own  feet. 
Justice  is  the  common  interest  of  all  men !  Alas,  that 
so  few  know  what  God  writes  in  letters  of  fire  on  the 
world's  high  walls ! 

You  have  not  forgotten  the  general  tone  of  the 
pulpit  —  "  Conscience  and  the  Constitution,"  at  An- 


276  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

dover.  Mr.  Stuart  says,  "  Keep  the  laws  of  men,  come 
what  may  come  of  the  higher  law  of  God."  One  min 
ister  of  Boston  said,  "  I  would  drive  the  fugitive  from 
my  own  door."  The  most  eminent  doctor  of  divinity 
in  the  Unitarian  ranks  declared  he  would  send  his 
own  mother  into  slavery.  He  says  he  said  brother! 
Give  him  the  benefit  of  the  ethical  distinction  ,•  he  would 
send  back  his  own  brother!  What  had  Andover  and 
New  Haven  to  say,  in  their  collegiate  churches  ?  What 
the  churches  of  commerce  in  New  York,  Boston,  Phil 
adelphia,  Albany,  Buffalo?  They  all  went  for 
kidnapping.  "  Down  with  God  and  up  with  iniquity." 
That  was  the  shout  of  the  lower-law  religion  which 
littered  the  land.  The  ecclesiastical  teachers  did  more 
to  strengthen  infidelity  then,  than  all  the  "  infidels  " 
that  ever  taught.  What  else  could  you  expect  from 
the  lower-law  divines?  All  at  once  this  blessed  Bible 
seemed  to  have  become  a  treatise  in  favor  of  man- 
stealing.  Kidnapping  arguments  were  strewn  all  the 
way  through  from  Genesis  to  Revelation.  These  were 
the  reverend  gentlemen  who  call  me  "  infidel,"  or  "  athe 
ist  ! "  Nothing  has  so  weakened  the  Church  in  Amer 
ica  as  this  conduct  of  these  "  leading  ministers  "  at 
that  time.  I  mean  ministers  of  churches  that  are  rich 
in  money,  which  lead  the  fashion  and  the  opinion  of 
the  day.  What  defenses  of  kidnapping  have  I  heard 
from  clerical  lips  !  "  No  matter  what  the  law  is  —  it 
must  be  executed.  The  men  who  made  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill,  and  those  who  seek  to  execute  it,  are 
'  Christian  men,'  '  very  conscientious  ! '  "  Turn  back 
and  read  the  newspapers  of  1850  and  1851.  Nay,  read 
them  not  —  they  are  too  bad  to  read ! 

When  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  was  before  Congress, 
some  of  the  Northern  politicians  said  to  the  people, 


THE  NEW  CRIME  277 

"  Let  it  pass ;  it  will  '  save  the  Union,'  and  we  will 
repeal  it  at  the  next  session  of  Congress."  After  it 
had  passed  they  said,  "  Do  not  try  to  repeal  it ;  that 
would  irritate  the  South,  and  '  dissolve  the  Union  ' ; 
it  will  never  be  executed;  it  is  too  bad  to  be."  But 
when  the  kidnapper  came  to  Boston,  and  demanded 
William  and  Ellen  Craft,  the  same  advisers  said,  "  Of 
course  the  niggers  must  be  sent  back;  the  law  must 
be  enforced  because  it  is  law! " 

At  length  the  time  came  to  execute  the  Act.  Mor 
ton  was  busy  in  New  York,  Kane  in  Philadelphia,  Cur 
tis,  the  Boston  commissioner,  was  also  on  his  feet. 
William  and  Ellen  Craft  fled  off  from  the  stripes  of 
America  to  the  lion  of  England.  Shadrach  —  he  will 
be  remembered  as  long  as  Daniel  —  sang  his  psalm  of 
deliverance  in  Canada.  Taking  him  out  of  the  Kid 
nappers'  Court  was  high  treason.  It  was  "  levying 
war."  Thomas  Sims  will  not  soon  be  forgotten  in 
Boston.  Mayor  Bigelow,  Commissioner  Curtis,  and 
Marshal  Tukey,  they  will  also  be  remembered;  they 
will  all  three  be  borne  down  to  posterity,  riding  on  the 
scourged  and  bleeding  shoulders  of  Thomas  Sims. 
The  government  of  Boston  could  do  nothing  for  the 
fugitive  but  kidnap  him.  The  officers  of  the  county 
nothing;  they  were  only  cockade  and  vanity.  The 
Supreme  Court  could  do  nothing;  the  judges  crouched 
and  crawled,  and  went  under  the  chain.  The  Free- 
soil  governor  could  do  nothing;  the  Free-soil  legisla 
ture  nothing.  The  court-house  was  in  chains.  Fan- 
euil  Hall  was  shut.  The  victim  was  on  trial.  A 
thousand  able-bodied  men  sat  in  Tremont  Temple  all 
day  in  a  Free-soil  convention,  and  —  went  home  at 
night !  Most  of  the  newspapers  in  the  city  were  for 
kidnapping.  The  greater  part  of  the  clergy  were 


278  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

for  returning  the  fugitive  —  "  Send  back  our  brother." 
In  Boston  wealthy  traders  entertained  the  kidnappers 
from  the  South.  Merchants  and  railroad  directors 
withdrew  their  advertising  from  newspapers  which  op 
posed  the  stealing  of  men.  More  than  one  minister 
in  New  England  was  driven  from  his  pulpit  for  de 
claring  the  Golden  Rule  superior  to  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill! 

When  Judge  Woodbury  decided  not  to  grant  the 
writ  of  habeas  corpus,  and  thus  at  one  spurt  of  his 
pen  cut  off  Mr.  Sinus's  last  chance  for  liberty  and  life, 
the  court-house  rang  with  plaudits,  and  the  clapping 
of  hands  of  "  gentlemen  "  who  had  assembled  there ! 
Fifteen  hundred  "  gentlemen,  of  property  and  stand 
ing,"  volunteered  to  escort  the  poor  fugitive  out  of 
the  State,  and  convey  him  to  bondage  for  ever.  It 
was  not  necessary.  When  he  stepped  from  Long 
Wharf  on  board  John  H.  Pearson's  brig, —  the  owner 
is  sorry  for  it  now,  and  has  repented,  and  promises  to 
bring  forth  fruits  meet  for  repentance;  let  that  bo 
remembered  to  his  honor, —  when  Thomas  Sims  stepped 
on  board  the  "  Acorn,"  these  were  his  words :  "  And 
this  is  Massachusetts  liberty !  "  There  was  that  great 
stone  finger  pointing  from  Bunker  Hill  towards 
heaven ;  and  this  was  Massachusetts  liberty !  "  Or 
der  reigned  in  Warsaw-."  But  it  was  some  comfort 
that  he  could  not  be  sent  away  till  soldiers  were  bil 
leted  in  Faneuil  Hall;  then,  only  in  the  darkest  hour 
of  the  night ! 

Boston  sent  back  the  first  man  she  ever  stole  since 
the  Declaration  of  Independence.  Thomas  Sims 
reached  Savannah  on  the  19th  of  April,  seventy-six 
years  after  the  first  battle  of  the  Revolution,  fought 
on  the  soil  of  Lexington.  He  was  sent  back  on  Sat- 


THE  NEW  CRIME  279 

urday,  and  the  next  Sunday  the  "  leading  ministers  " 
of  this  city  —  I  call  them  leading,  though  they  lead 
nobody  —  gave  God  thanks.  They  forgot  Jesus. 
They  took  Iscariot  for  their  exemplar.  "  The  Fugi 
tive  Slave  Bill  must  be  kept,"  they  said,  "  come  what 
will  come  to  justice,  liberty,  and  love;  come  what 
may  come  of  God." 

I  know  there  were  noble  ministers,  noble  men  in 
pulpits,  whose  hearts  bled  in  them,  and  who  spoke  brave 
warning  words  of  liberty ;  some  were  in  the  country, 
some  in  town.  I  know  one  minister,  an  "  orthodox 
man,"  who  in  five  months  helped  ninety-and-five  fugi 
tives  flee  from  American  stripes  to  the  freedom  of 
Canada !  I  dare  not  yet  tell  his  name !  Humble 
churches  in  the  country  towns  —  Methodist,  Baptist, 
Unitarian  —  of  all  denominations  save  that  of  com 
merce  —  dropped  their  two  mites  of  money  into  the 
alms-box  for  the  slave,  and  gave  him  their  prayers 
and  their  preaching  too.  But  the  "  famous  churches  " 
went  for  "  law,"  and  stealing  men. 

Slavery  had  long  been  master  at  Washington :  the 
"  Union  meeting  "  proved  that  it  was  master  at  Bos 
ton  ;  proved  it  by  words.  The  capture  and  sending 
back  of  Thomas  Sims  proved  it  by  deeds.  No  prom 
inent  Whig  openly  opposed  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill 
or  its  execution.  No  prominent  Democrat  op 
posed  it.  Not  a  prominent  clergyman  in  Boston 
spoke  against  it.  I  mean  a  clergyman  of  a  "  rich 
and  fashionable  church  " —  for  in  these  days  the  wealth 
and  social  standing  of  the  church  make  the  minister 
prominent.  Intellectual  power,  eloquence,  piety, — 
they  do  not  make  a  "  prominent  minister "  in  these 
days.*  Not  ten  of  the  rich  men  of  Massachusetts  gave 

*  Dr.  Charles  Lowell,  with  the  humane  piety  which  has  beauti- 


280  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

the  weight  of  their  influence  against  it.  Slavery  is 
master;  Massachusetts  is  one  of  the  inferior  counties 
of  Virginia;  Boston  is  only  a  suburb  of  Alexandria. 
Many  of  our  lawyers,  ministers,  merchants,  politi 
cians,  were  negro-drivers  for  the  South.  They  proved 
it  by  idea  before ;  then  by  deed.  Yet  there  were  men  in 
Boston  who  hated  slavery  —  alas !  they  had  little  in 
fluence. 

Let  me  not  pass  by  the  Baltimore  Conventions,  and 
the  two  platforms.  The  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  was  the 
central  and  topmost  plank  in  them  both.  Each  con 
fessed  slavery  to  be  master;  it  seemed  that  there  was 
no  North;  slave  soil  all  the  way  from  the  south  of 
Florida  to  the  north  of  Maine.  All  over  the  land 
slavery  ruled. 

You  cannot  forget  the  President's  inaugural  ad 
dress,  nor  the  comments  of  the  Boston  press  thereon. 
He  says  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  is  to  be  "  unhesi 
tatingly  carried  into  effect ;  "  "  not  with  reluctance," 
but  "  cheerfully  and  willingly."  The  newspapers  of 
Boston  welcomed  the  sentiment ;  and  now  Mr.  Pierce's 
organ,  the  Washington  Union,  says  it  is  very  proper 
this  Bill  should  be  enforced  at  Boston,  for  "  Boston 
was  among  the  first  to  approve  of  this  emphatic  decla 
ration."  So  let  the  promise  be  executed  here  till  we 
have  enough  of  it ! 

You  know  the  contempt  which  has  been  shown 
towards  everybody  who  opposed  slavery  here  in  Massa 
chusetts.  Horace  Mann  —  there  is  not  a  man  in  the 
State  more  hated  than  he  by  the  "  prominent  politi 
cians,"  —  or  more  loved  by  the  people  —  because  he 
opposed  slavery  with  all  his  might;  and  it  is  a  great 

fied  his  long  and  faithful  ministry,  at  that  time  opposed  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Bill  with  manly  earnestness. 


THE  NEW  CRIME  281 

might.  Robert  Rantoul,  though  a  politician  and  a 
party  man,  fought  against  slavery ;  and  when  he  died, 
though  he  was  an  eminent  lawyer,  the  members  of  the 
Suffolk  bar,  his  brother  lawyers,  took  no  notice  of 
him.  They  wore  no  crape  for  Robert  Rantoul!  He 
had  opposed  slavery ;  let  him  die  unnoticed,  unhonored, 
unknown.  Massachusetts  sent  to  the  Senate  a  man 
whose  chief  constitutional  impulse  is  the  instinct 
of  decorum  —  Mr.  Everett,  who  had  been  ready  to 
buckle  on  his  knapsack,  and  shoulder  his  musket,  to 
put  down,  an  insurrection  of  slaves;  a  Cambridge 
professor  of  Greek,  he  studied  the  original  tongue 
of  the  Bible  to  learn  that  the  Scripture  says  "  slaves," 
where  the  English  Bible  says  only  "  servants."  Fit 
senator ! 

Then  came  the  Nebraska  Bill.  It  was  at  once  a 
measure  and  a  principle.  As  a  measure,  it  extends 
the  old  curse  of  slavery  over  half  a  million  square 
miles  of  virgin  soil,  and  thus  hinders  the  growth  of 
the  territory  in  population,  riches,  education,  in  moral 
and  religious  character.  It  makes  a  South  Carolina 
of  what  might  else  be  a  Connecticut,  and  establishes 
paganism  in  the  place  of  Christ's  piety.  As  a  prin 
ciple,  it  is  worse  still  —  it  makes  slavery  national  and 
inseparable  from  the  national  soil;  for  the  principle 
which  is  covertly  endorsed  by  the  Nebraska  Bill 
might  establish  slavery  in  Massachusetts  —  and  ere 
long  the  attempt  will  be  made. 

In  the  House  of  Representatives,  forty-four  North 
ern  men  voted  for  the  enslavement  of  Nebraska.  They 
are  all  Democrats  —  it  is  an  administration  measure. 
Mr.  Everett,  the  senator  from  Boston,  did  "  not  know 
exactly  what  to  do."  The  thing  was  discussed  in 
committee,  of  which  he  was  a  member ;  but  when  it 


282  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

came  up  in  public,  it  "  took  him  by  surprise."  He 
wrote,  I  am  told,  to  eleven  prominent  Whig  gentle 
men  of  Massachusetts,  and  asked  their  advice  as  to 
what  he  should  do.  With  singular  unanimity,  every 
man  of  them  said,  "  Oppose  it  with  all  your  might !  " 
But  he  did  not.  Nay,  his  vote  has  not  been  recorded 
against  it  yet.  I  am  told  his  vote  was  in  favor  of 
prohibiting  aliens  from  voting  in  that  territory ;  his 
name  against  the  main  question  has  never  been  re 
corded  yet.  Nay,  he  did  not  dare  to  present  the 
remonstrance  which  three  thousand  and  fifty  of  his 
fellow-clergymen  manfully  sent  to  their  clerical 
brother,  and  asked  him  to  lay  before  the  Senate.  Did 
any  one  suppose  that  he  would  dare  do  it?  None 
who  knew  his  antecedents. 

There  was  an  anti-Nebraska  meeting  in  Boston  at 
Faneuil  Hall.  It  was  Siberian  in  its  coldness  —  it 
was  a  meeting  of  icebergs.  The  platform  was  arctic. 
There  seemed  to  be  no  heart  in  the  speeches.  It  must 
have  been  an  encouragement  to  the  men  at  Wash 
ington  who  advocated  the  bill.  I  suppose  they  un 
derstood  it  so.  I  am  sure  I  should.  The  mass  of 
the  people  in  Massachusetts  who  think  at  all,  are  in 
dignant;  but  so  far  as  I  can  learn,  the  men  who 
control  the  politics  of  Boston,  or  who  have  controlled 
them  until  the  last  week,  feel  no  considerable  interest 
in  the  matter.  In  New  York,  men  of  great  property 
and  high  standing  came  together  and  protested 
against  this  iniquity.  New  York  has  been,  for  once, 
and  in  one  particular,  morally  in  advance  of  Boston. 
The  platform  there  was  not  arctic,  not  even  Siberian. 
Such  a  meeting  could  not  have  been  held  here. 

Now,  put  all  these  things  together,  and  you  see 
the  causes  which  bore  the  fruits  of  last  week  —  in 


THE  NEW  CRIME  285 

general,  the  triumph  of  slavery  over  freedom,  and  in 
special,  the  indifference  of  Massachusetts,  and  partic 
ularly  of  Boston,  to  the  efforts  which  are  made  for 
freedom;  her  zeal  to  promote  slavery  and  honor  its 
defenders.  Men  talk  of  dividing  the  Union.  I  never 
proposed  that.  Before  last  week  I  should  not  have 
known  where  to  begin.  I  should  have  had  to  draw 
the  line  somewhere  north  of  Boston. 

Last  week  Massachusetts  got  part  of  her  pay  for 
obeying  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  with  alacrity;  for 
suppressing  discussion;  for  conquering  her  preju 
dices;  pay  for  putting  cowardly,  mean  men,  in  the 
place  of  brave,  honorable  men;  pay  for  allowing  the 
laws  of  Massachusetts  to  be  trodden  underfoot,  and 
her  court-house  of  Northern  granite  to  be  surrounded 
by  Southern  chains.  Thomas  Sims  was  scourged  on 
the  19th  of  April,  when  he  was  carried  back  to  Sa 
vannah.  Boston  did  not  feel  it  then.  She  felt  it 
last  week  —  felt  it  sorely.  In  September,  1850,  we 
heard  the  hundred  guns  fired  on  Boston  Common,  in 
honor  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  —  fired  by  men  of 
"  eminent  gravity."  Last  Friday  you  saw  the  can 
non  !  One  day  you  will  see  it  again  grown  into 
many  cannons.  That  one  was  only  a  devil's  grace 
before  a  devil's  meat!  No  higher  law,  is  there? 
Wait  a  little  longer,  and  you  shall  find  there  is  a 
"  lower  law,"  a  good  deal  lower  than  we  have  yet  come 
to  !  Sow  the  wind,  shall  we  ?  When  the  whirlwind  comes 
up  therefrom,  it  has  a  course  of  its  own,  and  God  only 
can  control  the  law  of  such  storms  as  those.  We 
have  not  yet  seen  the  full  consequences  of  sowing  athe 
ism  with  a  broad  hand  among  the  people  of  this 
continent.  We  have  not  yet  seen  the  end.  These 
are  only  the  small  early  apples  that  first  fall  to  the 


284  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

earth.  There  is  a  whole  tree  full  of  them.  When 
some  autumnal  storm  shakes  the  boughs,  they  will 
cover  the  ground  —  sour  and  bitter  in  our  mouths, 
and  then  poison. 

Yet  this  triumph  of  slavery  does  not  truly  repre 
sent  the  wishes  of  the  Northern  people.  Not  a  sin 
gle  pro-slavery  measure  has  ever  been  popular  with 
the  mass  of  men  in  New  England  or  Massachusetts. 
The  people  disliked  the  annexation  of  Texas  in  that 
unjust  manner:  they  thought  the  Mexican  War  was 
wicked.  They  were  opposed  to  the  extension  of  slav 
ery;  they  hated  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  and  rejoiced 
at  the  rescue  of  Shadrach.  The  kidnapping  of 
Thomas  Sims  roused  a  fierce  indignation.  Only  one 
town  in  all  New  England  has  ever  returned  a  fugi 
tive  —  all  the  rest  hide  the  outcasts,  while  Boston 
bewrays  him  that  wandereth.  The  Nebraska  Act  is 
detested  by  the  people. 

A  few  editors  have  done  a  manly  duty  in  opposing 
all  these  manifold  iniquities.  A  few  ministers  have 
been  faithful  to  the  spirit  of  this  Bible,  and  to  their 
own  conscience,  heedless  of  law  and  constitution. 
Manly  preachers  of  all  denominations  —  save  the  com 
mercial  —  protested  against  kidnapping,  against  en 
acting  wickedness  by  statute.  From  humble  pulpits 
their  voices  rang  out  in  Boston  and  elsewhere.  But 
what  were  they  among  so  many?  There  were  theo 
logical  journals  which  stoutly  resisted  the  wickedness 
of  the  prominent  men,  and  rebuked  the  mammon-wor 
ship  of  the  churches  of  commerce.  The  Independent 
at  New  York,  the  Congregationalist  at  Boston,  not  to 
mention  humbler  papers,  did  most  manly  service  —  now 
with  eloquence,  now  with  art,  then  with  satiric  scorn  - 
always  with  manly  religion.  Even  in  the  cities,  there 


THE  NEW  CRIME  285 

were  editors  of  secular  prints  who  opposed  the  wicked 
law  and  its  execution. 

No  man  in  New  England,  within  the  last  few  years, 
has  supported  slavery  without  at  the  same  time  losing 
the  confidence  of  the  best  portion  of  the  people  — 
sober,  serious,  religious  men ;  who  believe  there  is  a  law 
of  God  writ  in  the  nature  of  things.  Even  Mr.  Web 
ster  quailed  before  the  conscience  of  the  North:  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Massachusetts  no  longer  enjoys  the 
confidence  of  the  people ;  the  most  "  prominent  cler 
gymen  "  of  New  England  —  pastors,  I  mean,  of  the 
richest  churches  —  are  not  looked  up  to  with  the 
same  respect  as  before. 

The  popularity  of  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  "  showed 
how  deeply  the  feelings  of  the  world  were  touched  by 
this  great  outrage.  No  one  of  the  encroachments 
of  slavery  could  have  been  sustained  by  a  direct  pop 
ular  vote.  I  think  seven  out  of  every  ten  of  all  the 
New  England  men  would  have  voted  against  the  Fugi 
tive  Slave  Bill ;  nine  out  of  ten  against  kidnapping. 
But  alas !  we  did  not  say  so  —  we  allowed  wicked  men 
to  rule  over  us.  Now  behold  the  consequences !  Men 
who  will  not  love  God  must  fear  the  devil. 

Boston  is  the  test  and  touchstone  of  political  prin 
ciples  and  measures.  Faneuil  Hall  is  the  "  Cradle  of 
Liberty,"  and  therein  have  been  rocked  the  great  ideas 
of  America  —  rocked  by  noble  hands. 

Well,  if  Boston  had  said,  "  No  Texan  annexation 
in  that  wicked  way ! "  we  might  have  had  Texas  on 
fair  conditions.  If  Boston  had  opposed  the  Mexican 
War,  all  New  England  would  have  done  the  same 
—  almost  all  the  North.  We  might  have  had  all  the 
soil  we  have  got,  without  fighting  a  battle,  or  taking 
or  losing  a  life,  at  far  less  cost ;  and  have  demoralized 


286  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

nobody.  If,  when  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  was  be 
fore  Congress,  Boston  had  spoken  against  that  iniq 
uity,  all  the  people  would  have  risen,  and  there  would 
have  been  no  Fugitive  Slave  Act.  If,  after  that 
Bill  was  passed,  she  had  said,  "  No  kidnapping," 
there  would  have  been  none.  Then  there  would  have 
been  no  Nebraska  Bill,  no  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Com 
promise,  no  attempt  to  seize  Cuba  and  San  Domingo. 
If  the  fifteen  hundred  gentlemen  of  "  property  and 
standing  "  in  Boston,  who  volunteered  to  return  Mr. 
Sims  to  bondage,  or  the  nine  hundred  and  eighty-seven 
who  thanked  Mr.  Webster  for  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill, 
had  come  forward  on  the  side  of  justice,  they  might 
have  made  every  commissioner  swear  solemnly  that 
he  would  not  execute  that  Act.  Thus  the  "  true  sons  of 
liberty,"  on  the  17th  of  December,  1765,  induced 
Commissioner  Oliver  to  swear  solemnly,  at  noon-day, 
in  "  presence  of  a  great  crowd,"  and  in  front  of  the 
Liberty  Tree,  that  he  would  not  issue  a  single  stamp! 
Had  that  been  done,  there  would  have  been  no  man 
arrested.  There  are  only  eight  commissioners,  and 
public  opinion  would  have  kept  them  all  down.  We 
should  have  had  no  kidnappers  here. 

Boston  did  not  do  so ;  Massachusetts  did  no  such 
thing.  She  did  just  the  opposite.  In  1828,  the  leg 
islature  of  Georgia  passed  resolutions  relative  to  the 
tariff,  declaring  that  the  General  Government  had  no 
right  to  protect  domestic  manufactures,  and  had  been 
guilty  of  a  "  flagrant  usurpation ; "  she  will  insist 
on  her  construction  of  the  Constitution,  and  "  will  sub 
mit  to  no  other."  Georgia  carried  her  point.  The 
tariff  of  1828  went  to  the  ground!  South  Carolina 
imprisons  our  colored  citizens ;  we  bear  it  with  a  pa 
tient  shrug, —  and  pay  the  cost ;  Massachusetts  is 


THE  NEW  CRIME  287 

non-resistant ;  New  England  is  a  Quaker, —  when  a 
blustering  little  State  undertakes  to  ride  over  us.  Geor 
gia  offers  a  reward  of  five  thousand  dollars  for 
the  head  of  a  non-resistant  in  Boston, —  and  Boston 
takes  special  pains  to  return  Ellen  Craft  to  a  citizen 
of  Georgia,  who  wished  to  sell  her  as  a  harlot  for  the 
brothels  of  New  Orleans  1  Northern  clergymen  de 
fended  the  character  of  her  "  owner "  —  a  man  of 
"  unquestionable  piety."  You  know  what  denuncia 
tions  were  uttered  in  this  city  against  the  men  and 
women  who  sheltered  her !  Boston  could  not  allow 
the  poor  woman  to  remain.  Did  the  churches  of  com 
merce  "  put  up  a  prayer  "  for  her?  "  Send  back  my 
own  mother !  "  Not  a  Northern  minister  lost  his  pul 
pit  or  his  professional  respectability  by  that  form 
of  practical  atheism.  Not  one !  At  the  South  not  a 
minister  dares  preach  against  slavery ;  at  the  North 
-  think  of  the  preaching  of  so  many  "  eminent  di 
vines  ! " 

My  friends,  we  deserve  all  we  have  suffered.  We 
are  the  scorn  and  contempt  of  the  South.  They  are 
our  masters,  and  treat  us  as  slaves.  It  is  ourselves 
who  made  the  yoke.  We  offer  our  back  to  the  slave- 
driver's  whip.  A  Western  man  travels  all  through 
Kentucky  —  he  was  in  Boston  three  days  ago  —  and 
hears  only  this  rumor :  "  The  Yankees  are  cowards ; 
they  dare  not  resist  us.  We  will  drive  them  just  where 
we  like.  We  will  force  the  Nebraska  Bill  down  their 
throats,  and  then  force  San  Domingo  and  Cuba  af 
ter  it."  That  is  public  opinion  in  Kentucky.  My 
brothers,  it  is  very  well  deserved. 

The  North  hated  the  Missouri  Compromise.  Daniel 
Webster  fought  against  it  with  all  his  manly  might; 
and  then  it  was  very  manly  and  very  mighty.  When 


288  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

he  collects  his  speeches,  in  1850,  for  electioneering 
purposes  —  a  political  pamphlet  in  six  octavos  —  he 
leaves  out  all  his  speeches  and  writings  against  the 
Missouri  Compromise!  His  friend,  Mr.  Everett, 
writes  his  memoir,  and  there  is  nothing  about  Mr. 
Webster's  opposition  to  the  extension  of  slavery ;  about 
the  Missouri  Compromise  not  one  single  word. 

My  friends,  the  South  treat  us  as  we  deserve.  They 
make  compromises,  and  then  break  them.  They  say 
we  are  cowards.  Are  they  mistaken?  They  put  our 
seamen  in  jail  for  no  crime  but  their  complexion.  We 
allow  it.  Then  they  come  to  New  England,  and  in 
Boston  steal  our  fellow-citizens  —  no !  our  fellow-sub 
jects,  our  fellow-slaves.  We  call  out  the  soldiers  to 
help  them !  Go  into  a  bear's  den,  and  steal  a  young 
cub ;  and  if  you  take  only  one,  all  the  full-grown 
bears  in  the  den  will  come  after  you  and  follow  till 
you  die,  or  they  die,  or  their  strength  fails,  and  they 
must  give  up  the  pursuit. 

"O  Justice!  thou  art  fled  to  brutish  beasts, 
And  men  have  lost  their  reason ! " 

The  Nebraska  Bill  has  hardly  got  back  to  the  Sen 
ate  again  when  a  Virginian  comes  here  to  see  how  much 
Boston  will  bear.  He  brings  letters  to  eminent  cit 
izens  of  Boston,  lodges  at  the  Revere  House,  and 
bravely  shows  himself  to  the  public  in  the  streets.  He 
walks  upon  the  Common,  and  looks  at  the  eclipse  — 
the  eclipse  of  the  sun  I  mean,  not  the  eclipse  of  Bos 
ton;  that  he  needs  no  glass  to  look  at,  as  there  is 
none  smoked  dark  enough  to  hinder  it  from  dazzling 
his  eyes.  He  gets  two  Boston  lawyers  to  help  him 
kidnap  a  man.  He  finds  a  commissioner,  a  probate 
officer  of  Massachusetts,  ready  to  violate  the  tenure 


THE  NEW  CRIME  289 

of  his  own  trust,  prepared  for  the  work ;  a  marshal 
anxious  to  prove  his  democracy  by  stealing  a  man ; 
he  finds  newspapers  ready  to  sustain  him ;  the  gov 
ernor  lets  him  go  unmolested;  the  mayor  lends  him 
all  the  police  of  the  city ;  and  then,  illegally  and  with 
out  any  authority,  against  the  protestations  of  the 
aldermen,  calls  out  all  the  soldiers  among  a  hundred 
and  sixty  thousand  people,  in  order  to  send  one  inno 
cent  negro  into  bondage,  and  gives  them  orders,  it 
is  said,  to  shoot  down  any  citizen  who  shall  attempt 
to  pass  their  lines !  The  soldiers,  half  drunk,  present 
their  horse-pistols  at  the  heads  of  women  —  their 
thumb  on  the  hammer!  They  stab  horses,  and  with 
their  sabers  slash  the  heads  of  men! 

When  Mr.  Burns  was  first  seized  by  the  kidnappers, 
nearly  all  the  daily  newspapers  took  sides  against  the 
fugitive.  The  city  was  full  of  ministers  all  the  week ; 
two  anti-slavery  conventions  were  held,  one  of  them 
two  thousand  men  strong ;  the  Worcester  "  Freedom 
Club  "  came  down  here  to  visit  us :  they  all  went  home, 
and  "  order  reigns  in  Warsaw."  In  South  Carolina 
there  is  a  public  opinion  stronger  than  the  law.  Let 
Massachusetts  send  an  honored  citizen  to  Charleston, 
to  remonstrate  against  an  iniquitous  statute,  and  most 
respectable  citizens  drive  him  away.  Colored  citizens 
of  Massachusetts  rot  in  the  jails  of  Charleston. 
Northern  merchants  pay  the  costs.  Boston  merchants 
remonstrated  years  ago,  and  the  Boston  senator  did 
not  dare  to  offer  their  paper  in  Congress !  Yes,  a 
Boston  senator  did  not  dare  present  the  remonstrances 
of  Boston  merchants!  The  South  despises  us.  Do 
you  wonder  at  the  treatment  we  receive?  I  wonder 
not  at  all. 

Now,  let  me  say  another  word  —  it  must  be  a  brief 
XIII— 19 


290  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

one  —  of  this  particular  case.  When  Mr.  Burns  was 
kidnapped,  a  public  meeting  was  called  in  Faneuil 
Hall.  Who  went  there?  Not  one  of  the  men  who  are 
accustomed  to  control  public  opinion  in  Boston.  If 
ten  of  them  had  appeared  on  that  platform,  Mr.  Phil 
lips  and  myself  would  not  have  troubled  the  audience 
with  our  speech.  We  would  have  yielded  the  place  — 
to  citizens  of  u  eminent  gravity  "  giving  their  coun 
sel,  and  there  would  have  been  no  man  carried  out  of 
Boston.  I  could  mention  ten  men,  known  to  every 
man  here,  who,  if  they  had  been  there,  would  have 
so  made  such  public  opinion,  that  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Bill  commissioner  never  would  have  found  "  evidence  " 
or  "  law  "  enough  to  send  Anthony  Burns  back  to 
Alexandria.  There  was  not  one  of  them  there.  They 
did  not  wish  to  be  there.  They  cared  nothing  for 
freedom. 

In  general,  the  blame  of  this  wickedness  rests  on  the 
city  of  Boston,  much  of  it  on  Massachusetts,  on  New 
England,  and  on  all  the  North.  But  here  I  must 
single  out  some  of  the  individuals  who  are  personally 
responsible  for  this  outrage. 

I  begin  with  the  commissioner.  He  was  the  prime 
mover. 

Now,  as  a  general  thing,  the  commissioners  who  kid 
nap  men  in  America  have  had  a  proclivity  to  wicked 
ness.  It  has  been  structural,  constitutional.  Man- 
stealing  was  in  their  bones.  It  was  an  osteological 
necessity.  A  phrenologist,  examining  their  heads, 
would  have  said :  "  Beware  of  this  man.  He  is  '  fit 
for  treason,  stratagems,  and  spoils.' ' 

It  seems  natural  that  Mr.  Kane  should  steal  men 
in  Philadelphia.  His  name  is  warrant  to  bear  out 
the  deed.  In  Boston,  the  former  kidnapper  lost  no 


THE  NEW  CRIME  291 

"  personal  popularity  "  by  the  act.  His  conduct  seems 
alike  befitting  the  disposition  he  was  born  with,  and 
the  culture  he  has  attained  to ;  and  so  appears  equally 
natural  and  characteristic.  But  I  thought  Mr.  Loring 
of  a  different  disposition.  His  is  a  pleasant  face 
to  look  at,  dignified,  kindly  —  a  little  weak,  yet  not 
without  sweetness  and  a  certain  elevation.  I  have 
seen  him  sometimes  in  the  probate  office,  and  it  seemed 
to  me  a  face  fit  to  watch  over  the  widow  and  the  fa 
therless.  When  a  bad  man  does  a  wicked  thing,  it 
astonishes  nobody.  When  one  otherwise  noble  and 
generous  is  overtaken  in  a  fault,  we  "  weep  to  record, 
and  blush  to  give  it  in,"  and  in  the  spirit  of  meekness 
seek  to  restore  such  a  one.  But  when  a  good  man 
deliberately,  voluntarily,  does  such  a  deed  as  this, 
words  cannot  express  the  fiery  indignation  which  it 
ought  to  stir  up  in  every  man's  bosom.  It  destroys 
confidence  in  humanity. 

The  wickedness  began  with  the  commissioner.  He 
issued  the  writ.  It  was  to  end  with  him  —  he  is 
sheriff,  judge,  jury.  He  is  paid  twice  as  much  for 
condemning  as  for  acquitting  the  innocent. 

He  was  not  obliged  to  be  a  commissioner.  He  was 
not  forced  into  that  bad  eminence.  He  went  there 
voluntarily  fifteen  years  ago,  as  United  States  com 
missioner,  to  take  affidavits  and  acknowledgments. 
Slave-catching  was  no  part  of  his  duty.  The  soldiers 
of  Nicholas  execute  their  master's  tyranny  because 
they  are  forced  into  it.  The  only  option  with  them 
is  to  shoot  with  a  musket,  or  be  scourged  to  death 
with  the  knout.  If  Mr.  Loring  did  not  like  kidnap 
ping,  he  need  not  have  kept  his  office.  But  he  liked 
it.  He  wrote  three  articles,  cold  and  cruel,  in  the 
Daily  Advertiser,  defending  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill. 


292  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

But  if  he  kept  the  office  he  is  not  officially  obliged  to 
do  the  work.  The  district  attorney  is  not  suspected 
of  being  so  heavily  fraught  with  conscience  that  he 
cannot  trim  his  craft  to  sail  with  any  political  wind 
which  offers  to  carry  him  to  port;  but  even  Mr.  Hal- 
lett  refused  to  kidnap  Ellen  Craft.  He  did  not  like 
the  business.  It  was  not  a  part  of  Mr.  Loring's 
official  obligation.  A  man  lets  himself  to  a  sea-cap 
tain  as  a  mariner  to  go  a  general  voyage.  He  is  not 
obliged  to  go  privateering  or  pirating  whenever  the 
captain  hoists  the  black  flag.  He  can  leave  at  the 
next  port.  A  laborer  lets  himself  to  a  farmer  to  do 
general  farm  work.  By  and  by  his  employer  says, 
"  I  intend  to  steal  sheep."  The  man  is  not  obliged 
by  his  contract  to  go  and  steal  sheep  because  his  em 
ployer  will.  That  would  be  an  illegal  act  no  doubt. 
But  suppose  the  General  Government  had  made  a  law, 
authorizing  every  farmer  to  steal  all  the  black  sheep 
he  can  lay  his  hands  on ;  nay,  commanding  the  felony. 
Is  this  servant,  who  is  hired  to  do  general  farm  work, 
obliged  in  his  official  capacity  to  go  and  steal  black 
sheep?  I  do  not  look  at  it  so.  I  do  not  think  any 
man  does.  A  lawyer  turns  off  many  a  client.  A  con 
stable  refuses  many  a  civil  job.  He  does  not  like  the 
business.  The  commissioner  took  this  business  be 
cause  he  liked  to  take  it.  I  do  not  say  he  was  not 
"  conscientious."  I  know  nothing  of  that.  I  only 
speak  of  the  act.  Herod  was  "  conscientious,"  for 
aught  I  know,  and  Iscariot  and  Benedict  Arnold,  and 
Aaron  Burr.  I  do  not  tooich  that  question.  To  their 
own  master  they  stand  or  fall.  The  torturers  of  the 
Spanish  Inquisition  may  have  been  "  conscientious." 

It  was  entirely  voluntary  for  Mr.  Loring  to  take 
this  case.  There  was  no  official  obligation,  no  profes- 


THE  NEW  CRIME  293 

sional  honor,  that  required  him  to  do  it.  He  had  a 
"  great  precedent,"  even,  in  Mr.  Hallett,  to  decline  it. 

In  1843,  Massachusetts  enacted  a  law  prohibiting 
any  State  officer  from  acting  as  slave-catcher,  for 
fear  of  abuse  of  our  own  law.  Since  that,  Mr.  Lor- 
ing  has  become  judge  of  probate.  There  was  a 
chance  for  a  good  man  to  show  his  respect  for  the 
law  of  the  State  which  gives  him  office. 

Now  see  how  the  case  was  conducted.  I  am  no 
lawyer,  and  shall  not  undertake  to  judge  the  technical 
subtleties  of  the  case.  But  look  at  the  chief  things 
which  require  no  technical  skill  to  judge. 

The  commissioner  spoke  very  kindly,  and  even  pa 
ternally,  when  he  consulted  Burns.  I  confess  the  tear 
started  to  my  eye  when  he  looked  so  fatherly  towards 
the  man,  like  a  judge  of  probate,  and  asked  him, 
"  Would  you  like  a  little  time  to  prepare  to  make  a 
defense  ?  "  And  when  Mr.  Burns  replied,  "  Yes,"  he 
honorably  gave  him  some  time,  forty-eight  hours,  to 
decide  whether  he  would  make  a  defense  on  Saturday, 
May  27.  He  also  honorably  gave  Mr.  Burns  and 
his  counsel  a  little  time  to  make  ready  for  trial.  He 
gave  them  from  Saturday  until  Monday !  True,  it 
was  only  twenty-four  hours ;  Sunday  intervened,  and 
lawyers,  like  other  laymen,  and  ministers,  are  sup 
posed  to  be  at  meeting  on  Sunday.  That  twenty- 
four  hours  —  it  was  not  very  much  time  to  allow  for 
the  defense  of  a  man  whose  liberty  was  in  peril !  If 
Mr.  Burns  had  been  arraigned  for  murder,  he  would 
have  had  several  months  to  prepare  for  his  trial,  the 
purse  and  the  arm  of  Massachusetts  to  summon  wit 
nesses  for  his  defense.  But  as  he  was  charged  with 
no  crime,  only  with  being  the  involuntary  slave  of  one 
of  our  Southern  masters  —  as  the  Fugitive  Slave  Act 


294  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

was  not  designed  to  "  establish  justice,"  but  its  oppo 
site,  or  to  "  insure  the  blessings  of  liberty,"  but  the 
curse  of  bondage  —  he  may  have  only  twenty-four 
hours  to  make  ready  for  his  defense:  his  counsel  and 
a  minister  may  visit  him  —  others  are  excluded ! 

If  Mr.  Burns  had  been  arraigned  for  stealing  a 
horse,  for  slander,  or  anything  else,  not  twenty-four 
hours,  or  days,  but  twenty-four  weeks  would  have  been 
granted  him  to  make  ready  for  trial.  A  common 
lawsuit,  for  a  thousand  dollars,  in  the  Supreme  Court 
of  Suffolk,  is  not  ordinarily  tried  within  a  year;  and, 
if  any  questions  of  law  are  to  be  settled,  not  disposed 
of  within  two  years.  Here,  however,  a  man  was  on 
trial  for  more  than  life,  and  but  twenty-four  hours 
were  granted  him !  I  accept  that  thankfully,  and  ten 
der  Mr.  Loring  my  gratitude  for  that!  It  is  more 
than  I  looked  for  from  any  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  com 
missioner,  except  him.  I  never  thought  him  capable 
of  executing  this  wickedness.  Honor  him  for  this 
with  due  honor  —  no  more,  no  less. 

When  the  hearing  began,  the  kidnapper's  counsel 
urged  that  the  testimony  taken  at  first,  when  Mr. 
Burns  was  brought  up,  was  in  the  case.  The  com 
missioner  held  to  this  monstrous  position ;  and  it  was 
only  after  the  urgent  opposition  of  the  prisoner's 
counsel  that  he  consented  it  should  be  put  in  de  novo. 

But  after  the  kidnapping  lawyers  put  in  their  evi 
dence,  the  counsel  for  Mr.  Burns  asked  time  for  con 
ference  and  consultation,  as  the  most  important  ques 
tions  of  law  and  fact  came  up;  they  were  weary  with 
long  service  and  exhausting  labor  —  and  they  begged 
the  commissioner  to  adjourn  for  an  hour  or  two.  It 
was  already  almost  three  o'clock.  When  hard  pressed, 
he  granted  them  thirty  minutes  to  get  up  their  law 


THE  NEW  CRIME  295 

and  their  evidence,  take  refreshment,  and  come  back 
to  court.     At  length  he  extended  it  to  forty  minutes ! 
Much  of  that  time  was  lost  to  one  of  the  counsel  by 
the  troops,  who  detained  him  at  the  door.     But  the 
next  day,  after  Mr.  Burns's  counsel  had  brought  in 
evidence  to   show  that   he  was  in   Boston  on  the   1st 
of    March  —  which    nobody    expected,    for   Brent    al 
leges   that   he   saw   him   in   Virginia   on   the   19th   of 
March,   and  that  he   escaped   thence   on   the   £4th  — 
then,  after  a  conference  with  the  marshal,  he  grants 
the   kidnapper's    lawyers    an   hour   and   a   quarter  to 
meet  this  new  and  unexpected  evidence.     Of  course  he 
knew  that  in  granting  them  this  he  really  gave  them  all 
night  to  get  up  their  evidence,  prepare  their  defense, 
and  come  into  court  the  next  morning,  and  rebut  what 
had  been  said.     Is  that  fair?     Consider  what  a  mat 
ter  there  was  at  stake  —  a  man's  liberty  for  ever  and 
ever  on  earth !     Consider  that  Mr.  Loring  was  judge 
and  jury  —  that  it  was  a  "court"  without  appeal; 
that  no  other  court  could  pass  upon  his  verdict,  and 
reverse  it,  if  afterwards  it  was  shown  to  be  suspicious 
or  proved  to  be  wrong.     He  grants  Mr.  Burns  thirty 
minutes,  and  the  other  side,  at  once,  an  hour  and  a 
quarter,   virtually   all   night!     That  is   not  all.     His 
decision  was  limited  to  one  point,  namely,  the  identity 
of  the  prisoner.     If  Mr.  Burns  answered  the  descrip 
tion  of  the  fugitive  given  in  the  record,  the  commis 
sioner  took  it  for  granted,  first,  that  he  was  a  slave  — • 
there  was  no  proof;  second,  that  he  had  escaped  into 
another  State  —  that  was  not  charged  in  the  record, 
nor  proved  by  testimony;  third,  that  he  owed  service 
and  labor  to   Colonel  Suttle,  not  to  the  lessee,  who 
had  a  limited  fee  in  his  services,  nor  to  the  mortgagee, 
who   had  the   conditional   fee   of  his   person ;   but   to 


296  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

Colonel  Suttle,  the  reversioner,  the  original  claimant 
of  his  body. 

Now  the  statute  leaves  the  party  claimant  his  choice 
between  two  processes;  one  under  its  sixth  section,  the 
other  under  the  tenth. 

The  sixth  section  obliges  the  claimant  to  prove 
three  points  —  1,  That  the  person  claimed  owes  serv 
ice;  2,  That  he  has  escaped;  and,  3,  That  the  party 
before  the  court  is  the  identical  one  alleged  to  be  a 
slave. 

The  tenth  section  makes  the  claimant's  certificate 
conclusive  as  to  the  first  two  points,  and  only  leaves 
the  identity  to  be  proved. 

In  this  case,  the  claimant,  by  offering  proof  of 
service  and  escape,  made  his  election  to  proceed  un 
der  the  sixth  section. 

Here  he  failed:  failed  to  prove  service;  failed  to 
prove  escape.  Then  the  commissioner  allowed  him  to 
swing  round  and  take  refuge  in  the  tenth  section,  leav 
ing  identity  only  to  be  proved;  and  this  he  proved 
by  the  prisoner's  confession,  made  under  duress  and 
in  terror,  if  at  all ;  wholly  denied  by  him ;  and  proved 
only  by  the  testimony  of  a  witness  of  whom  we  know 
nothing,  but  that  he  was  contradicted  by  several  wit 
nesses  as  to  the  only  point  to  which  he  affirmed  capa 
ble  of  being  tested. 

So,  then,  the  commissioner  reduced  the  question  pre 
cisely  to  this:  Is  the  prisoner  at  the  bar  the  same 
Anthony  Burns  whom  Brent  saw  in  Virginia  on  the 
19th  day  of  March  last,  and  who  the  claimant  swears 
in  his  complaint  escaped  from  Virginia  on  the  24th 
of  March? 

One  man,  calling  himself  "  William  Brent,  a  mer 
chant  of  Richmond,"  testified  as  to  the  question  of 


THE  NEW  CRIME  297 

identity  —  "  This  is  Burns."  He  was  asked,  "  When 
did  you  see  him  in  Virginia?  "  and  he  answered,  "  On 
the  19th  of  March  last."  But  nobody  in  court  knew 
Mr.  Brent,  and  Mr.  Loring  himself  confessed  that  he 
stood  "  under  circumstances  that  would  bias  the  fair 
est  mind."  He  had  come  all  the  way  from  Richmond 
to  Boston  to  make  out  the  case.  Doubtless  he  ex 
pected  his  reward  —  perhaps  in  money,  perhaps  in 
honor;  for  it  is  an  honor  in  Virginia  to  support  the 
institutions  of  that  State.  But  on  the  other  side, 
many  witnesses  testified  that  Burns  was  here  in  Bos 
ton  on  the  1st  of  March,  and  worked  several  days  at 
the  Mattapan  Iron  Works,  at  South  Boston.  Several 
men,  well  known  in  Boston  —  persons  of  unimpeached 
integrity  —  testified  to  the  fact.  No  evidence 
rebutted  their  testimony.  Nothing  was  urged  to  im 
pugn  their  veracity.  The  commissioner  says  their 
"  integrity  is  admitted,"  and  "  no  imputation  of  bias 
could  be  attached "  to  them.  So,  to  decide  between 
these  two,  Mr.  Loring  takes  the  admissions  of  the 
fugitive,  alleged  to  have  been  made  under  duress,  in 
the  presence  of  his  "master,"  made  in  jail;  when  he 
was  surrounded  by  armed  ruffians ;  when  he  was  "  in 
timidated  "  by  fear  —  admissions  which  Mr.  Burns 
denied  to  the  last,  even  after  the  decision.  This  was 
the  proof  of  identity ! 

The  record  called  Burns  a  man  with  "  dark  com 
plexion."  The  prisoner  is  a  full-blooded  negro.  His 
complexion  is  black  almost  as  my  coat.  The  record 
spoke  of  Burns  as  having  a  scar  on  his  right  hand. 
The  right  hand  of  this  man  had  been  broken ;  it  was 
so  badly  injured  that  when  it  was  opened  he  could 
only  shut  it  by  grasping  it  with  his  left.  The  bone 
stuck  out  prominent.  The  kidnapper's  witness  tes- 


298  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

tified  that  Burns  was  in  Virginia  on  the  19th  of  March. 
Several  witnesses  —  I  know  not  how  many  —  testified 
that  he  was  in  Boston  nineteen  days  before ! 

Mr.  Brent  stated  nothing  to  show  that  he  had  ever 
had  any  particular  knowledge  of  Mr.  Burns,  or  par 
ticularly  observed  his  person.  Some  of  the  witnesses 
for  the  prisoner  did  not  testify  merely  from  general 
observation  of  his  form  or  features,  but  they  stated 
that  they  had  noted  especially  the  scar  on  his  cheek, 
and  his  broken  hand,  and  they  knew  him  to  be  the  man. 
Besides,  this  testimony  is  of  multiplied  force,  not 
being  that  of  so  many  to  one  fact ;  that  of  each 
stands  by  itself.  There  was  a  cloud  of  witnesses  to 
prove  that  Mr.  Burns  was  in  Boston  from  the  1st  of 
March.  If  their  evidence  could  be  invalidated,  it  was 
not  attacked  in  court.  Their  fairness  was  admitted. 

Not  many  years  ago,  a  woman  was  on  trial  in  Bos 
ton  for  the  murder  of  her  own  child.  At  first  she 
pleaded  guilty,  and,  weeping,  stated  the  motives  which 
led  to  the  unnatural  crime.  But  the  court  interfered, 
induced  her  to  retract  the  plea,  and  to  make  a  de 
fense.  And  in  spite  of  her  voluntary  admissions  made 
in  court,  she  was  acquitted  —  for  there  was  not  evi 
dence  to  warrant  a  legal  conviction. 

Mr.  Loring  seemed  to  regard  slavery  as  a  crimen 
exceptum;  and  when  a  man  is  charged  with  it  he  is 
presupposed  to  be  guilty,  and  must  be  denied  the  usual 
means  of  defense.  So  out  of  the  victim's  own  mouth 
he  extorts  the  proof  that  this  is  the  man  named  in 
the  record. 

A  man  not  known  to  anybody  in  court  brings  a  paper 
from  Alexandria  claiming  Anthony  Burns  as  his  slave ; 
the  paper  was  drawn  up  five  hundred  miles  off;  in  the 
absence  of  Mr.  Burns ;  by  his  enemies,  who  sought  for 


THE  NEW  CRIME  299 

his  liberty  and  more  than  his  life.  He  brought  one 
witness  to  testify  to  the  identity  of  the  man,  who  says 
that,  in  his  fear,  Burns  said,  "  I  am  the  man."  But 
seven  witnesses,  whose  veracity  was  not  impeached  in 
the  court,  testify  that  the  prisoner  was  in  Boston  in 
the  early  part  of  March ;  and  therefore  it  appears  that 
he  is  not  the  Burns  who  was  in  Virginia  on  the  19th 
of  March,  and  thence  escaped  on  the  24th.  To  de 
cide  between  the  two  testimonies  —  that  of  one  Vir 
ginian  under  circumstances  that  would  bias  the 
fairest  mind,  and  seven  Bostonians  free  from  all  bias 
—  the  commissioner  takes  the  words  put  into  the 
mouth  of  Mr.  Burns. 

Now,  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  provides  that  the  tes 
timony  of  the  fugitive  shall  not  be  received  as  evi 
dence  in  the  case.  Mr.  Loring  avoids  that  difficulty. 
He  does  not  call  it  "  testimony  "  or  "  evidence  "  He 
calls  it  "  admissions  " ;  accepts  it  to  prove  the  "  iden 
tity,"  and  decides  the  case  against  him.  But  who 
proves  that  Mr.  Burns  made  the  admissions?  There 
are  two  witnesses:  1.  A  man  hired  to  kidnap  him, 
one  of  the  marshal's  "  guard,"  a  spy,  a  hired  informer, 
set  to  watch  the  prisoner  and  make  inquisition.  Of 
what  value  was  his  testimony?  2.  Mr.  Brent,  who 
had  come  five  hundred  miles  to  assist  in  catching  a 
runaway  slave,  and  claimed  Mr.  Burns  as  the  slave. 
This  was  the  only  valuable  witness  to  prove  the  ad 
mission.  So  the  admission  is  proved  by  the  admission 
of  Mr.  Brent,  and  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Brent  is  proved 
by  the  admission !  Excellent  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  "  ev 
idence  "  !  Brent  confirms  Brent !  There  is,  I  think, 
a  well-known  axiom  of  the  common  law,  that  "  admis 
sions  shall  go  in  entire  "  —  all  that  the  prisoner  said. 
Now,  Mr.  Loring  rules  in  just  what  serves  the  in- 


BOO  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

terest  of  the  claimant,  and  rules  out  everything  that 
serves  Mr.  Burns's  interest.  And  is  that  Massachu 
setts  justice? 

Remember,  too,  that  Commissioner  Loring  is  the 
whole  court  —  a  "  judge "  not  known  to  the 
Constitution;  a  "jury"  only  known  in  the  in 
quisition  !  There  is  no  appeal  from  his  decision. 
The  witness  came  from  Virginia  to  swear  away 
the  freedom  of  a  citizen  of  Massachusetts,  charged 
with  no  crime.  When  the  marshal,  and  the  men 
hired  to  kidnap,  are  about  the  poor  black  man, 
it  is  said  he  makes  an  admission  that  he  is  the  fugitive ; 
and  on  that  "  evidence  "  Mr.  Loring  decides  that  he 
is  to  go  into  bondage  for  ever.  It  was  conduct 
worthy  of  the  Inquisition  of  Spain !  *  Let  doubts 
weigh  for  the  prisoner,  is  a  rule  as  old  as  legal  at 
tempts  at  justice.  Here,  they  weigh  against  him. 
The  case  is  full  of  doubts  —  doubts  on  every  side. 
He  rides  over  them  all.  He  takes  the  special  words  he 
wants,  and  therewith  strikes  down  the  prisoner's  claim 
to  liberty. 

Suppose,  in  the  present  instance,  the  fugitive  had 
been  described  as  a  man  of  light  complexion,  blue 
eyes,  and  golden  hair:  then,  suppose  some  white  man, 
you  or  I,  answered  the  description,  and  some  ruffian 
swore  to  the  identity.  By  that  form  of  law,  any 
man,  any  woman,  in  the  city  of  Boston,  might  have 
been  taken  and  carried  off  into  bondage  straightway, 
irredeemable  bondage,  bondage  for  ever. 

Commissioner  Loring  had  no  better  ground  for  tak- 

*  Tacitus  thinks  it  a  piece  of  good  fortune  that  Agricola 
died  before  such  "  admissions "  were  made  evidence  to  ruin  a 
man,  as  in  Domitian's  time  quum  suspiria  nostra  subscriberen- 
tur!  —  Agricola,  c.  xlv. 


THE  NEW  CRIME  301 

ing  away  the  liberty  of  Anthony  Burns  than  in  the 
case  I  have  just  supposed. 

Suppose  Colonel  Suttle  had  claimed  the  mayor  and 
aldermen  of  Boston  as  his  slaves;  had  brought  a 
"  record  "  from  Alexandria  reciting  their  names,  and 
setting  forth  the  fact  of  their  owing  service,  and  their 
escape  from  it ;  had  them  kidnapped  and  brought  be 
fore  Mr.  Loring.  According  to  his  own  ruling,  the 
only  question  he  has  to  determine  is  this :  "  the  iden 
tity  of  the  persons."  A  witness  testifies  that  the  mayor 
and  aldermen  of  Boston  are  the  parties  named  in  the 
record  as  owing  service  and  having  escaped  there 
from.  The  Commissioner  says  "  the  facts  to  be 
proved  by  the  claimant  are  three. 

"  1.  That  the  parties  charged  owed  him  service  in 
Virginia. 

"  £.  That  they  escaped  from  that  service. 

"  These  facts  he  has  proved  by  the  record  which 
the  statute  (sec.  10)  declares  '  shall  be  held,  and 
taken  to  be  full  and  conclusive  evidence  of  the  fact 
of  escape,  and  that  the  service  or  labor  of  the 
person  escaping  is  due  to  the  party  in  such  record 
mentioned.' 

"  Thus  these  two  facts  are  removed  entirely  and  ab 
solutely  from  my  jurisdiction,  and  I  am  entirely  and 
absolutely  precluded  from  applying  evidence  to  them ; 
if,  therefore,  there  is  in  the  case  evidence  capable  of 
such  application,  I  cannot  make  it. 

"  3.  The  third  fact  is  the  identity  of  the  parties 
before  me  with  the  parties  mentioned  in  the  record. 

"  This  identity  is  the  only  question  I  have  a  right  to 
consider.  To  this,  and  to  this  alone,  I  am  to  apply 
the  evidence. 

"  And  then,  on  the  whole  testimony,  my  mind  is  sat- 


302  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

isfied  beyond  a  reasonable  doubt  of  the  identity  of  the 
respondents  with  the  parties  named  in  the  record. 

"  On  the  law  and  facts  of  the  case,  I  consider  the 
claimant  entitled  to  the  certificate  from  me  which  he 
claims." 

The  mayor  and  aldermen  go  into  bondage  for  ever. 
The  liberty  of  all  this  audience  might  be  thus  sworn 
away  by  a  commissioner  and  another  kidnapper. 

But  the  "  ruling  "  is  not  the  worst  thing  in  the  case. 
The  commissioner  had  prejudged  it  all.  He  had  pre 
judged  it  entirely  before  he  had  even  begun  this  mock 
trial;  before  he  heard  the  defense;  before  the  pris 
oner  had  any  counsel  to  make  a  defense.  Here  is  my 
proof.  On  Friday  (May  26),  Wendell  Phillips  went 
to  Cambridge  to  see  Mr.  Loring.  He  is  a  professor 
of  law  in  Harvard  College,  teaching  law  and  justice 
to  the  young  men  who  go  up  thither  to  learn  law  and 
justice!  Mr.  Phillips  went  there  to  get  permission  to 
visit  Mr.  Burns,  and  see  if  he  would  make  a  defense 
and  have  counsel.  Mr.  Loring  advised  Mr.  Phillips 
to  make  no  defense.  He  said :  "  Mr.  Phillips,  I  think 
the  case  is  so  clear  that  you  would  not  be  justified  in 
placing  any  obstructions  in  the  way  of  the  man's  go 
ing  back,  as  he  probably  will." 

So,  as  the  matter  was  decided  beforehand,  it  was  to 
be  only  a  mock  trial,  and  might  just  as  well  have  been 
dispensed  with.  It  keeps  up  some  hollow  semblance 
to  the  form  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill;  but  it  was  all 
prejudged  before  Mr.  Burns  had  selected  his  coun 
sel  or  determined  to  have  any.  Place  no  "  obstruc 
tions  in  the  way  of  the  man's  going  back,  as  he  prob 
ably  will!  " 

Nor  is  that  all.  Before  any  defense  had  been  made, 
on  Saturday  night,  Mr.  Loring  drew  up  a  bill  of  sale 


THE  NEW  CRIME  S03 

of  Anthony  Burns.  Here  it  is,  in  his  own  handwrit 
ing  :- 

u  Know  all  men  in  these  Presents  —  That  I,  Charles 
F.  Suttle,  of  Alexandria,  in  Virginia,  in  consideration 
of  twelve  hundred  dollars,  to  me  paid,  do  hereby  re 
lease  and  discharge,  quitclaim  and  convey  to  Antony 
Byrnes,  his  liberty ;  and  I  hereby  manumit  and  re 
lease  him  from  all  claims  and  services  to  me  for  ever, 
hereby  giving  him  his  liberty  to  all  intents  and  effects 
for  ever. 

"  In  testimony  whereof,  I  have  hereto  set  my  hand 
and  seal,  this  twenty-seventh  day  of  May,  in  the  year 
of  our  Lord,  eighteen  hundred  and  fifty-four." 

What  should  you  say  of  a  judge  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Massachusetts  who  should  undertake  to  ne 
gotiate  a  note  of  hand  which  was  a  matter  of  litiga 
tion  before  him  in  court?  What  if  the  chief  justice, 
before  he  had  heard  a  word  of  the  case  of  the  last 
man  tried  for  murder  —  before  the  prisoner  had  any 
counsel  —  had  told  some  humane  man  taking  an  in 
terest  in  the  matter,  "  You  would  not  be  justified  in 
placing  any  obstructions  in  the  way  of  the  man's  be 
ing  hanged  as  he  probably  will"?  Add  this,  also: 
here  Commissioner  Loring  is  justice  to  draw  the  writ, 
judge,  jury,  all  in  one!  Do  the  annals  of  judicial 
tyranny  show  a  clearer  case  of  judgment  without  a 
hearing? 

This  is  not  yet  the  end  of  the  wickedness.  Last 
Wednesday  night  the  Kidnapper's  Court  adjourned  till 
Friday  morning  at  nine  o'clock.  Then  the  "  deci 
sion  "  was  to  be  made.  But  the  kidnapper  and  his 
assistants,  the  marshal,  etc.,  knew  it  on  Thursday  night. 
How  long  before,  I  know  not.  The  men  who  hired 
Mr.  Loring  to  steal  a  man,  with  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill 


304  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

for  his  instrument,  they  knew  the  decision  at  least  four 
teen  hours  before  it  was  announced  in  court  —  I  think 
twenty  hours  before. 

First,  he  judged  the  case  before  he  heard  it;  second, 
he  judged  it  against  evidence  when  he  heard  it;  third, 
he  clandestinely  communicated  the  decision  to  one  of 
the  parties  half  a  day  before  he  declared  it  openly  in 
court.  Could  Kane  or  Curtis  do  worse?  I  do  not 
find  that  they  have  ever  done  so  bad.  Does  Boston 
teem  with  Epsoms  and  Dudleys,  the  vermin  of  the  law? 
Does  New  England  spawn  Jeffreyses  and  Scroggses, 
whom  we  supposed  impossible  —  fictitious  characters 
too  bad  to  be? 

Look  at  the  marshal's  conduct.  Of  his  previous 
character  I  say  nothing.  But  his  agents  arrested  Mr. 
Burns  on  a  false  charge;  threatened  violence  if  he 
should  cry  out;  they  kept  him  in  secret.  Nobody 
came  nigh  unto  him. 

The  trial  was  unfairly  conducted  on  the  marshal's 
part.  The  public  was  excluded  from  the  court-house. 
His  servants  lined  the  stairways,  insulting  the  people. 
Southerners  were  freely  admitted,  but  Northern  gen 
tlemen  kept  out.  Rude,  coarse,  and  insolent  fellows 
found  no  check.  Clergymen  and  lawyers  were  turned 
back,  and  Southern  students  of  law  let  in.  Two  gen 
tlemen  were  refused  admission;  but  when  one  declared 
he  was  from  Virginia,  the  other  from  South  Carolina, 
they  were  both  admitted  on  the  instant.  The  whole 
court-house  seemed  to  be  the  property  of  the  slave 
power. 

He  crowded  the  court-house  with  soldiers.  Some  of 
them  were  drunk,  and  charged  bayonet  upon  the  coun 
sel  and  witnesses  for  Burns,  and  thrust  them  away. 
He  employed  base  men  for  his  guard.  I  never  saw 


THE  NEW  CRIME  305 

such  a  motley  crew  as  this  kidnapper's  gang  collected 
together,  save  in  the  darkest  places  of  London  and 
Paris,  whither  I  went  to  see  how  low  humanity  might 
go  down,  and  yet  bear  the  semblance  of  man.  He 
raked  the  kennels  of  Boston.  He  dispossessed  the 
stews,  bawding  the  courts  with  unwonted  infamy.  He 
gathered  the  spoils  of  brothels;  prodigals  not  peni 
tent,  who  upon  harlots  had  wasted  their  substance  in 
riotous  living;  pimps,  gamblers,  the  succubus  of  slav 
ery;  men  which  the  gorged  jails  had  cast  out  into  the 
streets  scarred  with  infamy;  fighters,  drunkards,  pub 
lic  brawlers;  convicts  that  had  served  out  their  time, 
waiting  for  a  second  conviction  ;  men  whom  the  subtlety 
of  counsel,  or  the  charity  of  the  gallows,  had  left  un 
hanged.  "  No  eye  hath  seen  such  scarecrows."  The 
youngest  of  the  police  judges  found  ten  of  his  constit 
uents  there.*  Jailer  Andrews,  it  is  said,  recognized 
forty  of  his  customers  among  them.  It  is  said  that 
Albert  J.  Tirrell  was  invited  to  move  in  that  leprous 
gang,  and  declined !  f  "  The  wicked  walk  on  every 
side  when  the  vilest  men  are  exalted !  "  The  publican 
who  fed  those  locusts  of  Southern  tyranny,  said  that 
out  of  the  sixty-five,  there  was  but  one  respectable  man, 
and  he  kept  aloof  from  all  the  rest.  I  have  seen  courts 
of  justice  in  England,  Holland,  Belgium,  Germany, 
France,  Italy,  and  Switzerland,  and  I  have  seen  just 
such  men.  But  they  were  always  in  the  dock,  not  the 
servants  of  the  court.  The  marshal  was  right ;  "  the 
statute  is  so  cruel  and  wicked  that  it  should  not  be 
executed  by  good  men."  He  chose  fit  tools  for  fitting 

*  Thomas  Russell. 

f  While  these  sheets   are  passing  through  the  press   I   learn 
that  three  of  the  marshal's  guard  have  been  arrested  for  crimes 
of  violence  committed  within  twenty-four  hours  after  the  rendi 
tion.    Set  a  thief  to  serve  a  thief. 
XIII— 20 


306  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

work.  I  do  not  think  Herod  sent  the  guardian  of  or 
phans  to  massacre  the  innocents  of  Bethlehem.  I 
doubt  that  Pontius  Pilate  employed  a  judge  of  pro 
bate  to  crucify  Jesus  between  two  thieves ! 

There  was  an  unfairness  about  the  offer  to  sell  Mr. 
Burns.  I  do  not  know  whose  fault  that  was.  His 
claimant  pretended  that  he  would  sell ;  but  when 
the  money  was  tendered,  his  agents  delayed,  equivo 
cated,  wore  out  the  time,  till  it  was  Sunday ;  and  the 
deed  could  not  legally  be  done.  It  was  the  man,  and 
not  the  money  they  wanted.  He  offered  to  sell  the 
man  for  twelve  hundred  dollars.  The  price  was  ex 
orbitant,  he  would  not  bring  eight  hundred  at  Alex 
andria. 

There  was  another  trick.  At  one  time  it  was 
thought  the  evidence  would  compel  the  reluctant  com 
missioner  to  free  his  victim.  Then  it  was  proposed 
that  he  should  be  seized  in  the  court,  and  either  sum 
marily  declared  a  slave  by  some  other  commissioner, 
or  else  carried  off  with  no  further  mock  trial.  I  think 
it  would  have  been  done ;  but  Commissioner  Loring  was 
ready  to  do  the  work  demanded  of  him,  and  earn  his 
twofold  pay. 

The  conduct  of  the  governor  requires  same  expla 
nation.  The  law  of  Massachusetts  was  cloven  down 
by  the  sword  of  the  marshal ;  no  officer  could  be  found 
to  serve  the  writ  of  personal  replevin,  designed  by 
the  Massachusetts  legislature  to  meet  exactly  such 
cases,  and  bring  Mr.  Burns  before  a  Massachusetts 
court.  The  governor  could  not  be  induced  to  attend 
to  it :  Monday  he  was  at  the  meeting  of  the  Bible  Soci 
ety  ;  Thursday  at  the  meeting  of  the  Sunday  Schools. 
If  the  United  States  marshal  had  invaded  the  sov 
ereignty  of  South  Carolina,  where  do  you  think  her 
governor  would  have  been? 


THE  NEW  CRIME  307 

The  conduct  of  the  mayor  of  Boston  deserves  to  be 
remembered.  He  had  the  police  of  the  city  in  Court 
Square,  aiding  the  kidnapper.  It  was  not  their  fault. 
They  served  against  their  will.  Captain  Hayes,  of 
the  police,  that  day  magnanimously  resigned  his 
charge.*  The  mayor  called  out  the  soldiers  at  great 
cost,  to  some  one.  He  did  this  on  his  own  responsi 
bility.  Five  aldermen  have  publicly  protested  against 
the  breach  of  honor  and  justice.  After  the  wicked 
deed  was  over,  he  attended  a  meeting  of  Sunday  School 
children  in  Faneuil  Hall.  When  he  was  introduced 
to  the  audience,  "  out  of  the  mouth  of  babes  and 
sucklings  "  came  a  hiss !  At  night,  the  "  citizen  sol 
diery  "  had  a  festival.  The  mayor  was  at  the  sup 
per,  and  toasted  the  military  —  eating  and  drinking 
and  making  merry.  What  did  they  care,  or  he,  that 
an  innocent  citizen  of  Boston  was  sent  into  bondage 
for  ever,  and  by  their  hands !  The  agony  of  Mr. 
Burns  only  flavored  their  cup. 

Thus,  on  the  2nd  of  June,  Boston  sent  into  bond 
age  the  second  victim.  It  ought  to  have  been  fifteen 

*  Here  is  the  note  of  Mr.  Hayes  to  the  city  authorities ;  one 
day  his  children  will  deem  it  a  noble  trophy:  — 

"  Boston,  June  2,  1854. 

"To  His  Honor  the  Mayor  and  the  Aldermen  of  the  City   of 
Boston :  — 

"Through  all  the  excitement  attendant  upon  the  arrest  and 
trial  of  the  fugitive  by  the  United  States  Government,  I  have 
not  received  an  order  which  I  have  conceived  inconsistent  with 
my  duties  as  an  officer  of  the  police  until  this  day,  at  which 
time  I  have  received  an  order  which,  if  performed,  would  im 
plicate  me  in  the  execution  of  that  infamous  "  Fugitive  Slave 
Bill." 

"  I  therefore  resign  the  office  which  I  now  hold  as  a  Captain 
of  the  Watch  and  Police  from  this  hour,  11  A.  M. 
Most  respectfully  yours, 

JOSEPH  K.  HAYES." 


308  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

days  later  —  the  17th  of  June.  What  a  spectacle  it 
was !  The  day  was  brilliant ;  there  was  not  a  cloud ; 
all  about  Boston  there  was  a  ring  of  happy  summer 
loveliness;  the  green  beauty  of  June;  the  grass,  the 
trees,  the  heaven,  the  light ;  and  Boston  itself  was  the 
theater  of  incipient  civil  war! 

What  a  day  for  Boston !  Citizens  applauding  that 
a  man  was  to  be  carried  into  bondage !  Drunken  sol 
diers,  hardly  able  to  stand  in  the  street,  sung  their 
ribald  song  —  "  Oh,  carry  me  back  to  old  Virginia  !  "  * 

*  I  copy  this  from  one  of  the  newspapers:  — 

"  The  Pay  of  the  Boston  Military  for  their  Aid  in  the  Rendition 

of  Anthony  Burns. 

"  We  write  with  an  *  iron  pen '  for  the  benefit  of  some  future 
historian,  that  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  eighteen  hundred  and 
fifty-four,  in  the  city  of  Boston,  there  was  received  for  their 
aid  in  consigning  to  the  bondage  of  American  chattel  slavery 
one  Anthony  Burns, —  by  the  grace  of  God  and  his  own  efforts 
a  freeman, —  by  the  independent  volunteer  militia  of  said  city, 
the  following  sums:  — 

"  National  Lancers,  Capt.  Wilmarth $    820.00 

Boston  Light  Dragoons,  Capt.  Wright 1,128.00 

Fifth  Regiment  of  Artillery,  by  Col.  Cowdin, 

for  himself,  staff,  and  regiment 3,946.00 

Boston  Light  Infantry,  Capt.  Rogers 460.00 

New  England  Guards,  Capt.  Henshaw 432.00 

Pulaski   Guards,   Capt.    Wright 328.00 

Boston  Light  Guard,  Capt.  Follett 500.00 

Boston  City  Guard,  Capt.  French 488.00 

(of  which  $190  was  paid  by  order  to  George 

Young   for  *  refreshments.' ) 

Boston  Independent  Fusileers,  Capt.  Cooley...  320.00 

Washington  Light  Infantry,  Capt.  Upton 536.00 

Mechanic  Infantry,  Capt.  Adams 428.00 

National  Guard,  Lieut.  Harlow  commanding. .  416.00 

Union  Guard,  Capt.  Brown 476.00 

Sarsfield  Guard,  Capt.  Hogan 308.00 

Boston  Independent  Cadets,  Capt.  Amory 1,136.00 

Boston  Light  Artillery,  Capt.  Cobb 168.00 

Major-General  Edmands  and  staff 715.00 


THE  NEW  CRIME  309 

Daniel  Webster  lies  buried  at  Marshfield;  but  his 
dead  hand  put  the  chain  on  Anthony  Burns.  Last 
winter  it  was  proposed  to  build  him  a  monument.  He 
needs  it  not.  Hancock  has  none ;  Samuel  Adams  sleeps 
in  a  nameless  grave ;  John  Adams  has  not  a  stone.  We 
are  their  monuments ;  the  homage  of  the  people  is  their 
epitaph.  Daniel  Webster  also  had  his  monument  last 
Friday.  It  was  the  court-house  crowded  with  two 
hundred  and  twenty  United  States  soldiers  and  flanked 
with  a  cannon.  His  monument  reached  all  the  way 
from  John  Hancock's  house  in  Court  Street  to  the  T 

Major  Pierce  and  staff  of  the  First  Battalion 
Light  Dragoons $  146.00 

Colonel  Holbrook  and  staff  of  the  first  Regi 
ment  of  Light  Infantry 26.00 

Brigadier-General  Andrews  and  staff  of  the 
First  Brigade 107.50 

Major  Burbank  and  staff  of  the  Third  Bat 
talion  of  Light  Infantry 76.00 

William  Read,  hardware  and  sporting  appa 
ratus  dealer,  for  ammunition 155.28 


Total $13,115.78" 

The  sum  paid  to  the  civil  officers  of  Boston  for  their  services 
has  not  yet  been  made  public. 

Mr.  Burns  was  subsequently  sold  to  David  McDaniel,  of  Nash 
county,  N.  C.,  on  condition  that  he  should  "never  be  sold  to 
go  North."  A  most  piteous  letter  was  received  from  him  in 
January,  1855,  full  of  pious  gratitude  to  all  who  sought  to 
preserve  for  him  the  inalienable  right  to  life,  liberty,  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness. 

Presently,  after  Commissioner  Loring  had  accomplished  his 
"  legal "  kidnapping,  he  tried  to  purchase  a  piece  of  meat  of 
a  noble-hearted  butcher  in  Boylston  Market.  "  I  will  take  that 
pig,"  said  the  Commissioner.  "You  can't  have  it,"  replied  the 
butcher.  "What,  is  it  sold?"  "No,  sir!  But  you  can't  buy 
your  meat  of  me.  I  want  none  of  your  blood-money.  It  would 
burn  my  pocket!" 

Rev.  Nehemiah  Adams,  D.D.,  subsequently  sent  to  the  Com 
missioner  a  presentation  copy  of  his  "  South  Side  View  of 
Slavery,"  with  the  author's  regards! 


310  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

Wharf;  nay,  it  went  far  out  to  sea  in  the  revenue 
cutter,  and  is  borne  seaward  or  shoreward.  Conquer 
your  prejudices!  No  higher  law!  On  the  brass  can 
non  you  could  read,  I  STILL  LIVE. 

Mr.  Burns  was  seized  on  that  day  which  the  Chris 
tian  Church  has  consecrated  to  two  of  the  martyrs, 
Saints  Donatian  and  Rogatian.  They  seem  to  have 
been  put  to  death  by  Rictius  Varus,  the  commissioner 
of  Belgic  and  Celtic  Gaul.  They  suffered  death  at 
Nantes.  They  were  impeached  for  professing  them 
selves  Christians.  Simple  death  was  not  torment 
enough  for  being  a  Christian  in  the  year  £87.  They 
were  put  to  the  rack  first.  Their  bodies,  still  held  in 
great  veneration,  now  sleep  their  dusty  slumber  in  the 
great  cathedral  of  the  town.  The  antiquarian  trav 
eler  wonders  at  the  statues  of  those  two  martyrs  still 
standing  at  the  corner  of  the  Money-Changers'  Street, 
and  telling  the  tale  of  times  when  the  Christians  only 
suffered  persecution.  St.  Rogatian's  day  was  not  an 
unfitting  time  for  puritanic  Boston  to  steal  a  man ! 

The  day  on  which  Mr.  Burns  was  sent  from  Boston 
into  Alexandrian  bondage  is  still  more  marked  in  the 
Christian  Church.  It  is  consecrated  to  a  noble  army 
of  martyrs  who  tasted  death  at  Vienna,  in  Gaul, —  now 
Vienne,  in  the  south  of  France  —  in  the  year  178  after 
Christ.  I  shall  never  forget  the  little  town,  once  fa 
mous  and  eminent,  where  the  dreadful  event  took 
place.  A  letter  written,  it  is  said,  by  St.  Irenaeus  him 
self  details  the  saddening  history.  It  begins,  "  We 
the  servants  of  Christ  [Mr.  Everett  might  translate  it 
*  slaves  '],  dwelling  at  Vienna  and  Lyons  in  Gaul,  to 
the  brethren  in  Asia  and  Phrygia  who  have  the  same 
faith  and  hope  with  us.  Peace,  and  Grace,  and  Glory 
from  God  the  Father,  and  from  our  Lord  Jesus 


THE  NEW  CRIME  Sll 

Christ."  The  whole  letter  is  a  most  touching  me 
morial  of  the  faithful  piety  of  the  Christians  in  days 
when  it  cost  life  to  be  religious.  Anybody  may  read 
what  remains  of  it  in  Eusebius.  Here  is  the  story  in 
short :  — 

A  law  was  passed  forbidding  Christians  to  be  out 
of  their  own  houses  "  in  any  place  whatsoever."  The 
most  cruel  punishments  were  denounced  against  all 
persons  who  professed  the  Christian  religion. 

The  governor,  who  was  also  a  commissioner  ap 
pointed  for  persecuting  and  murdering  the  Christians, 
had  the  most  prominent  members  of  the  Church  ar 
rested  and  brought  before  him.  In  the  "  examina 
tion  "  they  were  treated  with  such  cruelty  that  Vet- 
tius  Epagathus,  a  Christian  of  distinguished  family, 
undertook  their  defense,  a  man  so  exactly  virtuous, 
that,  though  young,  he  won  the  honor  of  old  Zacharias 
— "  walking  in  all  the  commandments  and  ordinances 
of  the  Lord  blameless."  The  commissioner  asked  him : 
"  Art  thou  also  a  Christian  ?  "  Epagathus  made  his 
"  admission  "  in  a  loud  voice,  and  shared  the  fate  of 
the  martyrs.  The  Christians  called  him  the  Comforter 
of  Christians, — "  for  he  had  the  Comforter,  the  Spirit, 
in  him,  more  than  Zacharias  himself ;  "  a  title  as  hate 
ful  then  as  Friend  of  the  Slave  now  is  in  the  Court  or 
the  Church  of  Kidnappers  in  Boston. 

Sanctus,  the  deacon;  Maturus,  a  new  convert;  At- 
talus,  from  Asia  Minor,  one  of  the  pillars  of  the 
Church ;  Blandina,  a  female  slave ;  Pothinus,  ninety 
years  old,  and  Bishop  of  Lyons,  hard  by,  were  put  to 
the  most  cruel  tortures.  Four  of  them  were  exposed 
to  the  wild  beasts  in  the  amphitheatre  to  divert  the 
spectators !  Blandina  was  fastened  to  a  post  to  be 
eaten  up  by  the  beasts,  and  when  they  left  her  un- 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

touched,  the  marshal  haled  her  to  prison  again. 
"  But,  last  of  all,  St.  Blandina,  like  a  well-born  mother 
who  has  nursed  her  children  and  sent  them  victorious 
to  the  king,  hastened  after  them,  rejoicing  and  leap 
ing  for  joy  at  her  departure;  thrown,  indeed,  to  the 
wild  beasts,  she  went  as  if  invited  to  a  bridal  feast ; 
and  after  the  scourging,  after  the  exposure  to  wild 
beasts,  after  the  chair  of  fire,  she  was  wrapped  in  a 
net  and  tossed  by  a  bull  —  and  at  last  killed."  Others 
fell  with  them :  Ponticus,  a  boy  of  fifteen ;  Alexander 
the  Phrygian,  and  many  more.  They  were  tortured 
with  cudgels,  with  whips,  with  wild  beasts,  and  red-hot 
plates  of  iron ;  at  last  they  died,  one  by  one.  The 
tormentors  threw  their  dead  bodies  to  the  dogs:  some 
raged  and  gnashed  their  teeth  over  the  dead,  seeking 
to  take  yet  more  abundant  vengeance  thereon ;  others 
laughed  and  made  mockery  thereof.  And  others, 
more  gentle,  seeming  to  sympathize  as  much  as  they 
dared,  made  grievous  reproaches,  and  said,  "  Where  is 
now  their  God,  and  of  what  profit  is  their  piety,  which 
they  loved  better  even  than  their  own  life !  Now  we 
shall  see  if  they  will  ever  rise  from  the  dead,  and  if 
their  God  can  help  and  deliver  them  out  of  our 
hands !  " 

So  things  went  at  Allobrogian  Vienna  on  the  2nd 
of  June,  sixteen  hundred  and  seventy-six  years  ago 
last  Friday.  The  murder  of  those  Christians  was  just 
as  "  legal  "  as  the  rendition  of  Anthony  Burns.  It 
would  be  curious  to  know  what  the  "  respectable  "  men 
of  the  town  said  thereupon:  to  see  the  list  of  fifteen 
hundred  citizens  volunteering  their  aid ;  to  read  the  let 
ter  of  nine  hundred  and  eighty-seven  men  thanking 
the  commissioner  for  touching  their  conscience.  The 
preaching  of  the  priests  must  have  been  edifying:  — 


THE  NEW  CRIME  313 

"  I  would  drive  a  Christian  away  from  my  own  door ! 
I  would  murder  my  own  mother ! " 

Doubtless  some  men  said,  "  The  statute  which  com 
mands  the  torturous  murder  of  men,  women,  and  chil 
dren,  for  no  crime  but  piety,  if  constitutional,  is 
wicked  and  cruel."  And  doubtless  some  heathen 
"  Chief  Justice  Parker  "  choked  down  the  rising  con 
science  of  mankind,  and  answered,  "  Whether  the  stat 
ute  is  a  harsh  one  or  not,  it  is  not  for  us  to  deter 
mine."  *  No !  it  is  not  for  the  bloodhound  to  ask 
whether  the  victim  he  rends  to  quivering  fragments  is 
a  sinner  or  a  saint ;  the  bloodhound  is  to  bite,  and  not 
consider;  he  has  teeth,  not  conscience.  The  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill  commissioner  is  not  to  do  justly,  and  love 
mercy,  and  walk  humbly  with  his  God ;  he  is  to  kidnap 
men  in  Boston  at  ten  dollars  a  head!  The  pagan 
murder  of  Christians  at  Vienna  under  Aurelian,  did  not 
differ  much  from  the  Christian  kidnapping  of  Mr. 
Burns  in  Boston  under  Pierce.  But,  alas  for  these 
times  —  it  is  not  recorded  of  the  Romans  that  any 
heathen  judge  of  probate  came  forward  and  volun 
teered  to  butcher  the  widows  and  orphans  of  the  early 
Church!  Then  the  tormenter  worshiped  Mars  and 
JJellona ;  now  he  sits  in  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Boston  chose  a  fit  day  to  consummate  her  second 
kidnapping.  St.  Pothinus  was  a  Christian  preacher, 
so  was  Anthony  Burns  — "  a  minister  of  the  Baptist 
denomination,"  "  regularly  ordained !  "  Commis 
sioner  Loring  could  not  have  done  better  than  select 
this  time  to  execute  his  "  decision."  On  St.  Pothinus's 
day,  let  Anthony  Burns  be  led  to  a  martyrdom  more 

*  Reference  is  here  made  to  the  words  used  by  Commissioner 
Loring  in  his  "decision,"  citing  the  words  of  the  late  Chief 
Justice  Parker. 


314  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

atrocious !  The  African  churches  of  Boston  may 
write  a  letter  to-day,  which  three  or  four  thousand 
years  hence  will  sound  as  strange  as  now  the  epistle 
of  St.  Irenaeus.  Sixteen  hundred  and  seventy-six  years 
hence,  it  may  be  thought  the  marshal's  "  guard  "  is  a 
fair  match  for  the  bullies  who  tortured  Blandina.  In 
the  next  world  the  district  marshal  may  shake  hands 
with  the  heathen  murderer  who  put  the  boy  Ponticus 
to  cruel  death.  I  make  no  doubt  there  were  men  at 
the  corners  of  the  streets  who  clapped  hands,  as  one 
by  one  the  lions  in  the  public  square  rent  the  Christian 
maidens  limb  from  limb,  and  strewed  the  ground  with 
human  flesh  yet  palpitating  in  its  severed  agony. 
Boston  can  furnish  mates  for  them.  But  the  judge 
of  probate,  the  teacher  of  a  Sunday  School,  the  mem 
ber  of  a  church  of  Christ, —  he  may  wander  through 
all  Hades,  peopled  thick  with  Roman  tormentors,  nor 
never  meet  with  a  heathen  guardian  of  orphans  who 
can  be  his  match.  Let  him  pass  by.  Declamation 
can  add  nothing  to  his  deed. 

"To  guild  refined  gold,  to  paint  the  lily, 
To  throw  a  perfume  on  the  violet, 
To  smooth  the  ice,  or  add  another  hue 
Unto  the  rainbow,  or  with  taper  light 
To  seek  the  beauteous  eye  of  heaven  to  garnish, 
Is  wasteful  and  ridiculous  excess." 

No  doubt  the  commissioner  for  murdering  the  Chris 
tians  at  Vienna  reasoned  as  "  legally  "  and  astutely  in 
the  second  century  as  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  commis 
sioner  at  Boston  in  the  nineteenth.  Perhaps  the  "  ar 
gument  "  was  after  this  wise :  — 

"  This  statute  has  been  decided  to  be  constitutional 
by  the  unanimous  opinion  of  the  judges  of  the  Su- 

*  See  the  commissioner's  "  decision." 


THE  NEW  CRIME  S15 

preme  Court  of  the  Province  of  Gaul,  after  the  fullest 
argument  and  the  maturest  deliberation,  to  be  the  law 
of  this  province,  as  well  as  and  because  it  is  a  consti 
tutional  law  of  the  Roman  Empire;  and  the  wise 
words  of  our  revered  chief-justice  *  may  well  be  re 
peated  now,  and  remembered  always.  The  chief  jus 
tice  says:  — 

"  '  The  torture,  persecution,  and  murder  of  Chris 
tians  was  not  created,  established,  or  perpetuated  by 
the  constitution ;  it  existed  before ;  it  would  have  ex 
isted  if  the  constitution  had  not  been  made.  The 
f  ramers  of  the  constitution  could  not  abrogate  the  cus 
tom  of  persecuting,  torturing,  and  murdering  Chris 
tians,  or  the  rights  claimed  under  it.  They  took  it  as 
they  found  it,  and  regulated  it  to  a  limited  extent. 
The  constitution,  therefore,  is  not  responsible  for  the 
origin  or  continuance  of  this  custom  of  persecuting, 
torturing,  and  murdering  Christians  —  the  provision  it 
contains  was  the  best  adjustment  which  could  be  made 
of  conflicting  rights  and  claims  to  persecute,  torture, 
and  murder,  and  was  absolutely  necessary  to  effect 
what  may  now  be  considered  as  the  general  pacification 
by  which  harmony  and  peace  should  take  the  place  of 
violence  and  war.  These  were  the  circumstances,  and 
this  the  spirit  in  which  the  constitution  was  made  — 
the  regulation  of  persecution,  torture,  and  murder  of 
Christians,  so  far  as  to  prohibit  provinces  by  law  from 
harboring  fugitive  Christians,  was  an  essential  element 
in  its  formation ;  and  the  union  intended  to  be  estab 
lished  by  it  was  essentially  necessary  to  the  peace  and 
happiness  and  highest  prosperity  of  all  the  provinces 

*  Hon.  Lemuel  Shaw.  See  his  "  opinion "  on  the  constitu 
tionality  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  in  7  Cushing's  Reports, 
p.  285,  et  seq. 


316  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

and  towns.  In  this  spirit,  and  with  these  views  stead 
ily  in  prospect,  it  seems  to  be  the  duty  of  all  judges 
and  magistrates  to  expound  and  apply  these  pro 
visions  in  the  constitution  and  laws  of  the  Roman  Em 
pire,  and  in  this  spirit  it  behooves  all  persons  bound 
to  obey  the  laws  of  the  Roman  Empire  to  consider  and 
regard  them.' 

"  Therefore  Christianas  ad  Leones  —  Let  the  Chris 
tians  be  torn  to  pieces  by  the  wild  beasts." 

Wednesday,  the  24th  of  May,  the  city  was  all  calm 
and  still.  The  poor  black  man  was  at  work  with  one 
of  his  own  nation,  earning  an  honest  livelihood.  A 
judge  of  probate,  Boston  born  and  Boston  bred,  a 
man  in  easy  circumstances,  a  professor  in  Harvard 
College,  was  sitting  in  his  office,  and  with  a  single 
spurt  of  his  pen  he  dashes  off  the  liberty  of  a  man  — 
a  citizen  of  Massachusetts.  He  kidnaps  a  man  en 
dowed  by  his  Creator  with  the  inalienable  right  to 
life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.  He  leaves 
the  writ  with  the  marshal,  and  goes  home  to  his  family, 
caresses  his  children,  and  enjoys  his  cigar.  The  friv 
olous  smoke  curls  round  his  frivolous  head,  and  at 
length  he  lays  him  down  to  sleep,  and,  I  suppose,  such 
dreams  as  haunt  such  heads.  But  when  he  wakes  next 
morn,  all  the  winds  of  indignation,  wrath,  and  honest 
scorn,  are  let  loose.  Before  night,  they  are  blowing 
all  over  this  Commonwealth  —  aye,  before  another 
night  they  have  gone  to  the  Mississippi,  and  wherever 
the  lightning  messenger  can  tell  the  tale.  So  have  I 
read  in  an  old  medieval  legend,  that  one  summer  after 
noon  there  came  up  a  "  shape,  all  hot  from  Tartarus," 
from  hell  below,  but  garmented  and  garbed  to  represent 
a  civil-suited  man,  masked  with  humanity.  He  walked 
quiet  and  decorous  through  Milan's  stately  streets,  and 


THE  NEW  CRIME  317 

scattered  from  his  hand  an  invisible  dust.  It  touched 
the  walls ;  it  lay  on  the  streets ;  it  ascended  to  the  cross 
on  the  minister's  utmost  top.  It  went  down  to  the 
beggar's  den.  Peacefully  he  walked  through  the 
streets,  vanished  and  went  home.  But  the  next  morn 
ing,  the  pestilence  was  in  Milan,  and  ere  a  week  had 
sped  half  her  population  were  in  their  graves ;  and 
half  the  other  half,  crying  that  hell  was  clutching  at 
their  hearts,  fled  from  the  reeking  City  of  the  Plague ! 

Why  did  the  commissioner  do  all  this?  He  knew 
the  consequences  that  must  follow.  He  knew  what 
Boston  was.  We  have  no  monument  to  Hancock  and 
Adams ;  but  still  we  keep  their  graves ;  and  Boston, 
the  dear  old  mother  that  bore  them,  yet  in  her  bosom 
hides  the  honored  bones  of  men  whom  armies  could 
not  terrify,  nor  England  bribe.  Their  spirit  only 
sleeps.  Tread  roughly,  tread  roughly  on  the  spot  — 
their  spirit  rises  from  the  ground !  He  knew  that  here 
were  men  who  never  will  be  silent  when  wrong  is  done. 
He  knew  Massachusetts ;  he  knew  Boston ;  he  knew  that 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  had  only  raked  the  ashes  over 
fires  which  were  burning  still,  and  that  a  breath  might 
scatter  those  ashes  to  the  winds  of  heaven,  and  bid  the 
slumbering  embers  flame.  Had  he  determined  already 
what  should  happen  to  Anthony  Burns?  He  knew 
what  had  befallen  Thomas  Sims.  Did  he  wish  another 
inhabitant  of  Boston  whipped  to  death? 

I  have  studied  the  records  of  crime  —  it  is  a  part  of 
my  ministry.  I  do  not  find  that  any  college  profes 
sor  has  ever  been  hanged  for  murder  in  all  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  family  of  men,  till  Harvard  College  had  that 
solitary  shame.  Is  not  that  enough?  Now  she  is  the 
first  to  have  a  professor  that  kidnaps  men.  "  The 
Athens  of  America  "  furnished  both. 


1518  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

I  can  understand  how  a  man  commits  a  crime  of 
passion,  or  covetousness,  or  rage, —  nay,  of  revenge, 
or  of  ambition.  But  for  a  man  in  Boston,  with  no 
passion,  no  covetousness,  no  rage,  with  no  ambition  nor 
revenge,  to  steal  a  poor  negro,  to  send  him  into  bond 
age, —  I  cannot  comprehend  the  fact.  I  can  under 
stand  the  consciousness  of  a  lion,  not  a  kidnapper's 
heart.  Once  Mr.  Loring  defined  a  lawyer  to  be  "  a 
human  agent  for  effecting  a  human  purpose  by  human 
means."  Here,  and  nowr,  the  commissioner  seems  an 
inhuman  agent  for  effecting  an  inhuman  purpose  by 
inhuman  means. 

I  belong  to  a  school  that  reverences  the  infinite  per 
fection  of  God, —  if,  indeed,  there  be  such  a  school. 
I  believe,  also,  in  the  nobleness  of  man ;  but  last  week 
my  faith  was  somewhat  sorely  tried.  As  I  looked  at 
that  miscreant  crew,  the  kidnapper's  body-guard,  and 
read  in  their  faces  the  record  and  the  prophecy  of 
many  a  crime, 

"  Felons  by  the  hand  of  nature  marked, 
Quoted  and  signed  to  do  a  deed  of  shame," 

I  could  explain  and  not  despair.  They  were  tools, 
not  agents.  But  as  I  looked  into  the  commissioner's 
face,  mild  and  amiable,  a  face  I  have  respected,  not 
without  seeming  cause;  as  I  remembered  his  breeding 
and  his  culture,  his  social  position,  his  membership  of  a 
Christian  church,  and  then  thought  of  the  crime  he  was 
committing  against  humanity,  with  no  temptation,  I 
asked  myself,  can  this  be  true?  Is  man  thus  noble, 
made  in  the  dear  image  of  the  Father,  God?  Is  my 
philosophy  a  dream :  or  are  these  facts  a  lie  ? 

But  there  is  another  court.  The  Empsons  and  the 
Dudleys  have  been  summoned  there  before;  Jeffreys 


THE  NEW  CRIME  319 

and  Scroggs,  the  Kanes,  and  the  Curtises,  and  the 
Lorings,  must  one  day  travel  the  same  unwelcome  road. 
Imagine  the  scene  after  man's  mythologic  way.  "  Ed 
ward,  where  is  thy  brother  Anthony  ?  "  "  I  know 
not;  am  I  my  brother's  keeper,  Lord?"  "Edward, 
where  is  thy  brother  Anthony  ?  "  "  Oh,  Lord,  he  was 
friendless,  and  so  I  smote  him ;  he  was  poor,  and  I 
starved  him  of  more  than  life.  He  owned  nothing  but 
his  African  body.  I  took  that  away  from  him,  and 
gave  it  to  another  man !  " 

Then  listen  to  the  voice  of  the  Crucified  — "  Did  I 
not  tell  thee,  when  on  earth,  '  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord 
thy  God  with  all  thy  understanding  and  thy  heart?  ' 
"  But  I  thought  thy  kingdom  was  not  of  this  wrorld." 

"  Did  I  not  tell  thee  that  thou  shouldst  love  thy 
neighbor  as  thyself?  Where  is  Anthony,  thy  brother? 
I  was  a  stranger,  and  you  sought  my  life ;  naked,  and 
you  rent  away  my  skin;  in  prison,  and  you  delivered 
me  to  the  tormentors  —  fate  far  worse  than  death. 
Inasmuch  as  you  did  it  to  Anthony  Burns,  you  did  it 
unto  me." 

The  liberty  of  America  was  never  in  greater  peril 
than  now.  Hessian  bayonets  were  not  half  so  danger 
ous  as  the  gold  of  the  national  treasury  in  the  hands 
of  this  administration.  Which  shall  conquer,  slavery 
or  freedom?  That  is  the  question.  The  two  cannot 
long  exist  side  by  side.  Think  of  the  peril;  remem 
ber  the  rapacity  of  this  administration ;  its  reckless 
leaders:  think  of  Douglas,  Gushing,  and  the  rest. 
They  aimed  at  the  enslavement  of  Nebraska.  The 
Northern  majority  in  Congress  yielded  that. 

Now  they  aim  at  Hayti  and  Cuba.  Shall  they 
carry  that  point?  Surely,  unless  we  do  our  duty. 
Shall  slavery  be  established  at  the  North,  at  the  West, 


320  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

and  the  East;  in  all  the  free  States?  Mr.  Toombs 
told  Mr.  Hale — "Before  long  the  master  will  sit 
down  at  the  foot  of  Bunker  Hill  monument  with  his 
slaves."  Will  do  it?  He  has  done  it  already,  and 
not  an  officer  in  the  State  of  Massachusetts  made  the 
least  resistance.  Our  laws  were  trod  down  by  insolent 
officials,  and  Boston  ordered  out  her  soldiers  to  help  the 
disgraceful  deed.  Strange  that  we  should  be  asked  to 
make  the  fetters  which  are  to  chain  us.  Mr.  Suttle 
is  only  a  feeler.  Soon  there  will  be  other  Suttles  in 
Boston.  Let  them  come ! 

It  is  not  only  wicked ;  it  is  costly.  The  kidnapping 
of  Mr.  Burns  must  have  cost  in  all  at  least  one  hun 
dred  thousand  dollars,  including  the  loss  of  time  and 
traveling  expenses  of  our  friends  from  the  country. 
The  publican's  bill  for  feeding  the  marshal's  crew  is  al 
ready  more  than  six  thousand  dollars ! 

Consider  the  demoralization  of  the  people  produced 
by  such  a  deed.  Mr.  Dana  was  knocked  down  in  the 
street  by  one  of  the  marshal's  posse  —  as  it  is  abun 
dantly  proved.*  The  blow  might  easily  have  been 
fatal.  It  is  long  since  a  bully  had  attacked  a  re 
spectable  citizen  in  Boston  before.  Hereafter  I  fear 
it  will  be  more  common.  You  cannot  employ  such  a 
body-guard  as  the  marshal  had  about  him  in  such 
business  without  greatly  endangering  the  safety  of 
the  persons  and  the  property  of  the  town.  We  shall 
hear  from  them  again.  What  a  spectacle  it  was ;  the 
army  of  the  United  States,  the  soldiers  of  Boston, 
sending  an  innocent  man  into  slavery !  What  a  lesson 

*  The  culprit  was  held  in  trifling  bail  by  the  court,  one  of 
the  marshal's  gang  became  his  surety.  But  the  ruffian  ab 
sconded,  was  subsequently  arrested  at  New  Orleans,  and  sent  to 
the  House  of  Correction  for  a  year  and  a  half. 


THE  NEW  CRIME  321 

to  the  children  in  the  Sunday  Schools  —  to  the  vagrant 
children  in  the  streets,  who  have  no  school  but  the 
sights  of  the  city!  What  a  lesson  of  civilization  to 
the  Irish  population  of  Boston !  Men  begin  to  under 
stand  this.  There  never  was  so  much  anti-slavery 
feeling  in  Boston  before  —  never  so  much  indignation 
in  my  day.  If  a  law  aims  at  justice,  though  it  fail  of 
the  mark  we  will  respect  the  law  —  not  openly  resist 
it  or  with  violence :  wait  a  little,  and  amend  it  or  repeal 
it.  But  when  the  law  aims  at  injustice,  open,  mani 
fest,  palpable  wickedness,  why,  we  must  be  cowards 
and  fools  too,  if  we  submit. 

Massachusetts  has  never  felt  so  humiliated  before. 
Soldiers  of  the  government  enforcing  a  law  in  peaceful 
Boston,  the  most  orderly  of  Christian  cities !  We  have 
had  no  such  thing  since  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence  !  The  rendition  of  Mr.  Burns  fills  New  Eng 
land  with  sorrow  and  bitter  indignation.  The  people 
tolled  the  bells  at  Plymouth.  The  bones  of  the  fore 
fathers  gave  that  response  to  the  kidnappers  in  Boston. 
At  Manchester  and  several  other  towns  they  did  the 
same.  To-day,  ministers  are  preaching  as  never  be 
fore.  What  will  it  all  come  to?  Men  came  to  Bos- 
t,on  peacefully  last  week.  Will  they  always  come 
"  with  only  the  arms  God  gave  ? "  One  day  in  the 
seventeenth  century  five  thousand  country  gentlemen 
rode  into  London  with  a  "  petition  to  the  king  " — 
with  only  the  arms  God  gave  them.  Not  long  after 
they  went  thither  with  Oliver  Cromwell  at  their  head 
and  other  "  arms  "  which  God  also  had  given.  May 
such  times  never  return  in  New  England !  * 

*  While  this  sermon  is  passing  through  the  press,  I  find  the 
following  paragraph  in  a  newspaper:  — 

"One  of  the  Fourth  of  July  celebrations  at   Columbus,  Ga.2 
XIII— 21 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

We  want  no  rashness,  but  calm,  considerate  action, 
deliberate,  prudent  far-seeing.  The  Fugitive  Slave 
Bill  is  a  long  wedge,  thin  at  one  end,  wide  at  the  other ; 
it  is  entered  between  the  bottom  planks  of  our  Ship 
of  State ;  a  few  blows  thereon  will  "  enforce  "  more 
than  the  South  thinks  of.  A  little  more, —  and  we 
shall  go  to  pieces.  Men  talk  wildly  just  now,  and  I 
do  not  credit  what  cool  men  say  in  this  heat.  But  I 
see  what  may  come  —  what  must  come,  if  a  few  more 
blows  be  struck  in  that  quarter.  It  was  only  Mr. 
Webster's  power  to  manufacture  public  opinion  by  his 
giant  will  and  immense  eloquence,  which  made  the 
North  submit  at  all  to  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill.  He 
strained  his  power  to  the  utmost  —  and  died !  Now 
there  is  no  Webster  or  Clay ;  not  even  a  Calhoun ;  not 
a  first-rate  man  in  the  pro-slavery  party,  North  or 
South.  Slavery  is  not  well  manned  —  many  hands, 
dirty,  cunning,  stealthy, —  not  a  single  great,  able 
head. 

The  cowardice  of  Mr.  Everett  has  excited  the  clergy 
of  New  England ;  of  all  the  North.  They  are  stung 

was  the  sale  of  ninety  or  a  hundred  men,  women,  and  boys,  by 
the  order  of  Robert  Toombs,  United  States  senator.  Here  is 
the  advertisement :  — 

" '  ADMINISTRATOR'S  SALE.—  Will  be  sold  on  the  first  Tuesday 
in  July  next,  at  the  court-house  door  of  Stewart  county,  within 
the  usual  hours  of  sale,  between  ninety  and  one  hundred  ne 
groes,  consisting  of  men,  women,  boys,  etc.  These  negroes  are 
all  very  likely,  and  between  forty  and  fifty  of  the  number  are 
men  and  boys.  Sold  as  the  property  of  Henry  J.  Pope,  deceased, 
in  pursuance  of  an  order  of  the  Court  of  Ordinary  of  Stewart 
county,  for  the  benefit  of  heirs  and  creditors.  Terms  of  sale, 
a  credit  (with  interest)  until  25th  December  next. 

"  *  ROBERT  TOOMBS, 
"'Adm'r  of  Henry  J.   Pope,  deceased.' 

"  *  Men,  women,  and  boys,'  bought  on  the  Fourth  of  July, — 
paid  for  on  Christmas !  " 


THE  NEW  CRIME 

with  the  reproach  of  the  people,  and  ashamed  of  their 
own  past  neglect.  The  Nebraska  Bill  opens  men's 
eyes.  Agitation  was  never  so  violent  as  at  this  day. 
The  prospect  of  a  war  with  Spain  is  not  inviting  to 
men  who  own  ships,  and  want  a  clear  sea  and  open 
market.  Pirates,  privateers, —  Algerine,  Greek,  Span 
ish,  Portuguese,  West  Indian, —  are  not  welcome  to  the 
thoughts  of  men.  The  restoration  of  the  slave  trade 
is  not  quite  agreeable  to  the  farmers  and  mechanics 
of  the  North.  This  attempt  to  seize  a  man  in  Boston ; 
the  display  of  force ;  the  insolence  of  the  officials ;  the 
character  of  the  men  concerned  in  this  iniquity  —  all  is 
offensive.  Then  there  was  insult,  open  and  intentional. 
Boston  merchants  feel  as  they  never  did  before.  All 
Massachusetts  is  incensed.  The  wrath  of  Massachu 
setts  is  slow,  but  she  has  wrath,  has  courage,  "  perse 
verance  of  the  saints." 

Let  us  do  nothing  rashly.  What  is  done  hastily 
must  be  done  over  again  —  it  is  not  well  done.  This  is 
what  I  would  recommend: 

1.  A  convention  of  all  Massachusetts,  without  dis 
tinction   of   party,   to   take   measures  to   preserve  the 
rights  of  Massachusetts.     For  this  we  want  some  new 
and  stringent  laws  for  the  defense  of  personal  liberty, 
for  punishing  all  who  invade  it  on  our  soil.     We  want 
powerful  men  as  officers  to  execute  these  laws. 

2.  A  general  convention  of  all  the  States  to  organize 
for  mutual  protection  against  this  new  master. 

It  is  not  speeches  that  we  want  —  but  action ;  not 
rash,  crazy  action,  but  calm,  deliberate,  systematic 
action  —  organization  for  the  defense  of  personal  lib 
erty  and  the  State  rights  of  the  North.  Now  is  a  good 
time ;  let  us  act  with  cool  energy.  By  all  means  let 
us  do  something,  else  the  liberties  of  America  go  to 


324  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

ruin  —  then   what   curses   shall   mankind   heap   upon 


us! 

"  And  deep,  and  more  deep  —  as  the  iron  is  driven, — 

Base  slaves,  will  the  whet  of  our  agony  be, 
When  we  think  —  as  the  damned  haply  think  of  the  heaven 

They  had  once  in  their  reach  —  that  we  might  have  been  free." 

But,  my  friends,  out  of  all  this  dreadful  evil  we 
can  bring  relief.  The  remedy  is  in  our  hearts  and 
hands.  God  works  no  miracles.  There  is  power  in 
human  nature  to  end  this  wickedness.  God  appointed 
the  purpose,  provided  the  means  —  a  divine  purpose, 
human  means.  Only  be  faithful,  and  in  due  time  we 
shall  triumph  over  the  destroyer.  Every  noble  quality 
of  man  works  with  us;  each  attribute  of  God.  We 
are  His  instruments.  Let  us  faithfully  do  the  ap 
pointed  work!  Darkness  is  about  us!  Journey  for 
ward  ;  light  is  before  us ! 

"O  God,  who  in  Thy  dear  still  heaven 

Dost  sit  and  wait  to  see 
The  errors,  sufferings,  and  crimes 

Of   our   humanity; 
How  deep  must  be  Thy  causal  love, 

How  whole  Thy  final  care, 
Since  Thou  who  rulest  all  above 

Canst  see,  and  yet  canst  bear ! " 

APPENDIX 
I 

My  friend,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Edward  Beecher,  thinks  I  have 
been  unjust  to  the  ministers, —  judging  from  the  sermon  as  re 
ported  in  the  Commonwealth.  So  he  published  an  article  in 
that  paper  on  Friday,  June  9.  It  comes  from  a  powerful  and 
noble  man.  I  wish  he  had  made  out  a  stronger  case  against  me. 

"  THEODORE  PARKER  AND  THE  MINISTRY. 

"  Mr.  Editor, —  In  his  sermon,  last  Sabbath,  Mr.  Parker  seems 
to  charge  the  clergy  of  the  country  with  a  general,  if  not  uni- 


THE  NEW  CRIME  325 

versal,  delinquency  in  the  cause  of  freedom  with  respect  to  the 

Fugitive  Slave  Law. 

******* 

"  Now,  if  Mr.  Parker  were  to  be  represented,  on  both  con 
tinents,  as  an  advocate  of  kidnapping,  and  of  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Law,  he  would  probably  regard  it  as  unjust.  But  he 
does  not  seem  to  be  sufficiently  alive  to  the  idea,  that  it  is 
unjust  to  convey  the  idea  that  this  is  true  of  clergymen  who 
have  from  the  first  opposed  these  measures  as  earnestly  and 
decidedly  as  he  himself.  He  seems  to  be  fully  convinced  that 
to  rob  even  one  slave  of  his  liberty  is  a  crime.  He  does  not 
seem  as  deeply  to  feel  that  it  is  a  crime  to  rob  even  our  min 
isters  of  that  reputation  which  in  his  own  case  he  prizes  so 
highly.  Even  if  the  cases  of  fidelity  were  few,  for  that  very 
reason  they  should  receive  from  a  lover  of  the  cause  the  more 
careful  and  particular  notice  and  praise.  In  cases  like  these, 
if  ever,  discriminations  and  truthful  statements  of  facts  are  a 
sacred  duty.  Let  those  be  censured  who  deserve  censure,  and 
let  those  be  commended  who  deserve  praise. 

"  Allow  me,  then,  to  state  some  of  the  facts  of  the  case  chiefly 
concerning  the  Orthodox  Congregational  pastors  and  churches, 
leaving  to  other  denominations,  if  they  see  fit,  to  state  similar 
facts,  more  at  large,  in  their  own  case.  From  my  own  knowl 
edge,  I  am  assured  that  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  multiply 
them,  especially  if  a  full  account  were  to  be  given  of  all  the 
unpublished  sermons  of  the  times. 

"  It  is  not  true,  as  Mr.  P.'s  statements  imply,  that  Mr. 
Parker  was  the  only  one  who  preached  and  wrote  and  prayed 
against  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law. 

"The  Congregationalism  then  edited  by  the  Rev.  H.  M.  Dex 
ter,  Rev.  Mr.  Storrs,  and  myself,  devoted  all  its  energies  to 
a ,  conflict  with  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  and  a  vindication  of 
the  claim  of  the  higher  law.  Some  of  its  articles  were  con 
sidered  of  such  importance  as  to  be  honored  with  special  at 
tention  and  censure  by  Mr.  Choate,  at  the  Boston  Union  Saving 
meeting.  Our  articles,  if  collected,  would  make  a  large  volume. 

"The  law  was  also  most  earnestly  opposed  from  the  pulpit 
by  many  ministers,  Mr.  Stone,  Mr.  Dexter,  and  myself  among 
the  number.  The  same  thing  was  true  of  a  large  number  of 
the  clergymen  of  New  England  and  the  Middle  States.  I  have 
before  me  published  sermons  or  other  addresses  to  this  effect 
from  Storrs  and  Spear,  of  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.;  Beecher,  of  Newark, 
N.  J.;  Thompson  and  Cheever,  of  New  York;  Bacon,  of  New 
Haven,  Conn.;  Colver,  of  Boston;  Wallcott,  now  of  Providence; 
Leavitt,  then  of  Newton;  Withington,  of  Newbury,  Mass.; 


326  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

Whitcomb,  of  Stoneham;  Thayer,  of  Ashland;  Arvine,  of  West 
Boylston,  and  others.  Nothing  can  be  more  able  and  eloquent 
than  their  defense  of  God's  law,  as  opposed  to  the  infamous 
Slave  Bill.  Others  also  were  published  which  I  have  not  on 
file,  and  I  know  of  several  very  able  discourses  against  the 
law  which  were  not  published.  If  a  true  report  could  be  made 
of  all  the  sermons  then  preached,  and  of  the  influence  then 
exerted  in  other  ways  by  the  ministry  of  the  North,  there  is 
reason  to  believe  that  a  very  large  majority  would  be  found 
to  have  set  themselves  decidedly  against  the  law,  and  to  have 
advocated  its  entire  disobedience. 

"  The  fact  is,  that  undue  importance  has  been  given  to  those 
of  the  ministry  who  favored  obedience  to  that  law,  and  they 
have  been  made  to  overshadow  its  more  numerous  opponents. 

44  In  relation  to  Andover,  the  facts  are  these:  —  Professor 
Stuart,  who  for  some  years  had  ceased  to  act  as  professor  in 
the  Seminar}',  published  his  views,  greatly  to  the  regret  of  a 
large  portion  of  his  brethren.  That  the  body  of  the  professors 
of  the  institution  did  not  sympathize  in  these  views,  is  evident 
from  the  fact  that  when  a  paper  approving  the  compromise 
was  circulated  there,  Professors  Park,  Phelps,  and  Edwards 
refused  to  sign.  Only  one  acting  professor  did  sign,  much  to 
his  own  subsequent  regret.  This  does  not  justify  the  sweeping 
affirmation,  4  Andover  went  for  kidnapping.'  Mr.  Parker  ought 
to  be  more  careful,  and  less  free  in  the  use  of  such  wholesale 
charges.  Moreover,  the  positions  of  Professor  Stuart  were 
thoroughly  exposed  by  members  of  his  own  denomination. 

"The  Rev.  Rufus  Clark,  now  of  East  Boston,  published  in 
the  columns  of  the  Atlas  a  thorough  refutation  of  his  pamphlet 
in  a  series  of  very  able  articles,  which  were  subsequently  re- 
published  in  a  pamphlet  form. 

44  Rev.  George  Perkins,  of  Connecticut,  performed  a  similar 
service  in  that  State.  Rev.  Mr.  Dexter,  of  Boston,  exposed 
himself  to  an  excited  retort  from  Professor  Stuart,  for  his 
keen  and  able  exposure  of  his  course  on  the  Compromises. 

44  That  there  was  a  sad  failure  on  the  part  of  too  many  of 
the  clergy  of  Boston  and  other  commercial  cities,  cannot  be 
denied;  nor  do  I  desire  to  avert  from  them  merited  censure. 
But  ought  the  labors  of  such  men  as  the  clerical  editors  and 
contributors  of  the  Independent  to  be  passed  by  in  silence  in 
speaking  of  the  prominent  clergy  of  the  city  of  New  York? 

44  As  to  the  other  cities  named,  if  there  were  but  one  excep 
tion  in  each,  it  ought  to  have  been  prominently  named  and 
honored.  I  do  not  doubt  that  there  were  more. 

44  As  to  the  country  churches   and  pastors  of  New   England, 


THE  NEW  CRIME  327 

I  have  already  stated  my  opinion  that  the  vast  majority  were, 
opposed  to  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law.  It  is  not  just  to  regard 
the  Nebraska  protest  as  a  virtual  confession  and  reparation  of 
past  neglect,  but  rather  as  a  development  of  the  real  feeling 
of  the  clergy  of  New  England.  Charity  thinketh  no  evil,  and 
there  is  no  gain  at  this  time  in  depreciating  the  merits  of  any 
earnest  opponents  of  the  aggressions  of  slavery. 

"  As  Mr.  Parker  expects  to  be  read  in  all  parts  of  this  na 
tion  and  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  I  will  not  doubt  that  his 
strongly  avowed  appreciation  of  what  is  just  and  honorable  in 
action  will  induce  him  to  revise  and  correct  his  statement  of 
facts,  and  instead  of  such  sweeping  and  indiscriminate  censure, 
to  give  honor  where  honor  is  due. 

EDWARD    BEECHER." 

I  have  repeatedly  and  in  the  most  public  manner  done  honor 
to  the  ministers  who  have  opposed  this  great  iniquity,  and  did 
not  suppose  that  any  one  would  misunderstand  the  expressions 
which  Dr.  Beecher  considers  as  "  sweeping."  When  he  reads 
in  the  Bible  that  "  Jerusalem  and  all  Judea  went  out,"  I  sup 
pose  he  thinks  that  some  persons  stayed  at  home.  But  I  am 
sorry  he  could  not  make  out  a  stronger  case  for  his  side.  I 
know  nothing  of  what  was  said  privately,  or  of  sermons  which 
never  get  spoken  of  out  of  the  little  parish  where  they  are 
written.  He  mentions  sixteen  Orthodox  ministers  who  pub 
lished  matter  in  opposition  to  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill.  It  is 
not  a  very  large  number  for  all  the  churches  in  New  Jersey, 
New  York,  Connecticut,  Rhode  Island,  and  Massachusetts  to 
furnish.  I  can  mention  more. 

These  are  the  facts  in  respect  to  Andover:  Professor  Stuart, 
the  most  distinguished  clergyman  in  all  New  England,  wrote 
an  elaborate  defense  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  and  of  Mr. 
Webster's  conduct  in  defending  it.  He  was  induced  to  do  this 
by  Mr.  Webster  himself.  The  work  is  well  known  —  Conscience 
and  the  Constitution  —  and  it  is  weak  and  doting  as  it  is 
wicked.  Professor  Stuart  and  two  other  Andover  professors 

—  Rev.  Ralph  Emerson,  D.D.,  and  Rev.  Leonard  Woods,  D.D. 

—  signed    the    letter    to    Mr.    Webster    expressing    their    "  deep 
obligations  for  what  this  speech  has  done  and  is  doing;"  thank 
ing  him  "  for  recalling  us  to  our  duties  under  the  Constitution, 
and  for  the  broad,  national,  and  patriotic  views  "  it  inculcates, 
and  desiring  to  "express  to  you  our  entire  concurrence  in  the 
sentiments  of  your  speech."     It  seems  three  other  professors  — 
Messrs.  Park,  Phelps,  and  Edwards  —  did  not  sign  it,  and  one 
of  the  signers  —  Dr.  Woods  or  Dr.  Emerson  —  did  it  much  to 
his  own  subsequent  regret.     But  did  he  make  his  regret  public? 


328  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

Did  Andover  in  public  say  anything  against  the  conduct  of  the 
signers? 

At  the  Annual  Conference  of  Unitarian  Ministers,  in  May, 
1851,  long  and  public  defenses  of  kidnapping  were  made  by 
"  the  most  eminent  men  in  the  denomination."  One  doctor  of 
divinity  vindicated  the  attempt  of  his  parishioners  to  kidnap 
mine,  whom  I  took  to  my  house  for  shelter.  Dr.  Dewey's 
promise  to  send  back  his  own  mother  or  brother  got  the 
heartiest  commendation  from  more  than  one  "  prominent  min 
ister."  Dr.  Dewey  was  compared  with  "faithful  Abraham;" 
his  declaration  was  "  imputed  to  him  for  righteousness."  Many 
of  the  country  ministers  were  of  a  different  opinion.  Some  of 
them  declared  his  conduct  "  atrocious."  Of  course  there  were 
noble  men  in  the  Unitarian  denomination,  who  were  faithful 
to  the  great  principles  of  Christianity.  I  have  often  spoken  in 
their  praise,  and  need  not  now  mention  their  names,  too  well 
known  to  require  honor  from  me. 

But  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  I  can  retract  nothing  from  what 
I  have  said  in  general  respecting  the  conduct  of  the  clergy  of 
all  denominations  at  that  time.  At  a  large  public  meeting  in 
Boston  a  Vigilance  Committee  was  appointed  to  look  after 
the  fugitives  and  furnish  them  aid.  The  Committee  sent  a 
circular  to  every  church  in  Massachusetts,  asking  for  the  fugi 
tives  donations  of  money  and  clothes;  and  received  replies  from 
eighty-seven  churches,  which  gave  us  $1484.56 ! 

Here  is  my  letter  in  reply  to  Dr.  Beecher,  from  the  Com 
monwealth  of  June  10,  1854:  — 

"  DR.  EDWARD  BEECHER  AXD  THEODORE  PARKER. 

"Rev.  Edward  Beecher,  D.D., —  My  dear  Sir,  I  have  just  read 
your  letter  in  the  Commonwealth  of  this  morning,  in  which 
you  maintain  that  the  statements  in  my  last  sermon  respecting 
the  delinquency  of  the  Northern  clergy  were  too  sweeping,  and 
that  I  did  injustice  to  the  ministers  who  stoutly  resisted  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Bill  and  its  execution.  Perhaps  the  language 
of  the  sermon  would  seem  to  warrant  your  opinion.  But  I  have 
so  many  times,  and  in  so  public  a  manner,  expressed  my  respect 
and  veneration  for  those  noble  men  who  have  been  found  faith 
ful  in  times  of  peril,  that  I  cannot  think  I  am  in  general  ob 
noxious  to  the  charge  you  make  against  me. 

In  respect  to  the  special  sermon  of  last  Sunday,  I  beg  leave 
to  inform  you  that  the  whole  was  neither  printed  nor  preached; 
the  entire  sermon  is  now  in  press,  and  when  you  see  it,  I 
think  you  will  find  that  I  do  no  injustice  to  the  men  you 
speak  of.  As  I  spoke  on  Sunday,  I  did  not  suppose  any  one 


THE  NEW  CRIME  329 

would  misunderstand  my  words,  or  think  I  wished  to  be  re 
garded  as  the  only  one  found  faithful.  Certainly  I  have  many 
times  done  honor  to  the  gentlemen  you  mention,  and  to  the 
journals  you  refer  to  —  with  others  you  do  not  name.  And 
allow  me  to  say,  the  conduct  of  yourself  and  all  your  family 
has  not  only  been  a  strong  personal  encouragement  to  me,  but 
a  theme  of  public  congratulation  which  I  have  often  brought 
forward  in  lectures,  and  sermons,  and  speeches.  I  am  a  little 
surprised  that  you  should  suppose  that  by  the  churches  of 
commerce  in  New  York,  Boston,  etc.,  I  mean  all  the  churches 
of  these  towns.  I  still  think  that  from  1850  to  1852  the  gen 
eral  voice  of  the  New  England  churches,  so  far  as  it  was 
heard  through  the  press,  was  in  favor  of  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Bill  and  its  execution.  This  was  especially  true  of  the  rich 
and  fashionable  churches  in  the  great  commercial  towns. 
Surely  you  cannot  forget  the  numerous  clerical  eulogies  on 
the  late  Mr.  Webster,  which  sought  to  justify  all  his  political 
conduct.  I  do  not  think  you  have  made  out  a  very  strong  case 
for  Andover. 

"  I   am  sorry  to  have  given  pain  to  a  man  whose  life  is   so 
noble  and  his  character  so  high;  but  believe  me, 
Respectfully  and  truly  yours, 

THEODORE  PARKER. 

II 

"  MR.   ATTORNEY   HALLETT'S  INTERFERENCE   WITH   THE   PURCHASE 
OF  THE  FUGITIVE. 

Boston,  Saturday,  June  3,  1854. 

"  To  the  Editors  of  the  Atlas:  —  You  have  called  my  attention 
to  an  article  in  your  paper  this  morning  signed  "  L.,"  and  to 
a  contradiction  of  its  statement  in  the  Journal  of  this  evening, 
by  authority  of  the  United  States  district  attorney.  I  know 
nothing  of  the  origin  of  either  of  these  articles,  but  will,  at 
your  request,  give  you  a  narrative  of  my  own  connection  with 
the  recent  negotiation  for  the  freedom  of  "  Byrnes,"  believing 
that  such  a  narrative  will  be  altogether  pertinent  to  the  fact 
which  you  seek  to  establish,  namely,  the  interference  of  the 
United  States  district  attorney  in  the  negotiation  above  re 
ferred  to. 

"  On  Saturday  afternoon  last,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Grimes  called  upon 
me  and  said  that  the  owner  of  Byrnes  had  offered  to  sell  him 
for  twelve  hundred  dollars,  and  that  he  (Grimes)  was  anxious 
to  raise  the  money  at  once.  He  desired  my  advice  and  as 
sistance  in  the  matter,  and  requested  me  to  draw  up  a  suitable 
subscription  paper  for  that  purpose,  which  I  did  in  these 
words :  — 


330  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

Boston,  May  27,   1854. 

44  We,  the  undersigned,  agree  to  pay  to  Anthony  Byrnes,  or 
order,  the  sum  set  against  our  respective  names,  for  the  purpose 
of  enabling  him  to  obtain  his  freedom  from  the  United  States 
Government,  in  the  hands  of  whose  officers  he  is  now  held  as 
a  slave. 

"  This  paper  will  be  presented  by  the  Rev.  L.  A.  Grimes,  pas 
tor  of  the  12th  Baptist  Church. 

"  Upon  this  paper  Mr.  Grimes  obtained  signatures  for  six 
hundred  and  sixty-five  dollars,  and  with  the  aid  of  Colonel 
Suttle's  counsel,  Messrs.  Parker  and  Thomas,  who  interested 
themselves  in  this  matter,  four  hundred  dollars  more  were  got 
in  a  check,  conditionally,  and  held  by  Mr.  Parker.  It  was 
agreed  by  me  that  I  should  be  near  at  hand  on  Saturday 
night,  to  assist  and  advance  the  money,  which  was  accordingly 
done;  and  my  check  for  eight  hundred  dollars,  early  in  the 
night,  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  United  States  marshal  for 
this  purpose.  About  eleven  o'clock,  all  parties  being  repre 
sented,  we  met  at  Mr.  Commissioner  Loring's  office.  This  gen 
tleman,  with  commendable  alacrity,  prepared  necessary  papers. 

"At  this  juncture  the  actual  money  was  insisted  on,  which 
threatened  for  a  time  the  completion  of  the  negotiation;  but 
anticipating  this  contingency,  which,  under  all  circumstances, 
was  not  an  unreasonable  demand,  we  adjourned  to  the  mar 
shal's  office,  and  I  prepared  myself  with  the  needful  tender. 
The  United  States  attorney,  Mr.  Hallett,  was  in  attendance, 
and  the  respective  parties  immediately  discussed  the  mode  of 
procedure.  The  hour  of  twelve  was  rapidly  approaching,  after 
which  no  action  could  be  taken.  Mr.  Grimes  was  prepared  to 
receive  Byrnes,  and  anxious  to  take  him  as  he  might  peace 
fully.  The  matter  lingered,  and  official  action  ceased. 

"  I  am  not  disposed  to  charge  any  one  with  designedly  de 
feating  the  desired  end  on  that  occasion.  The  business  was 
new,  the  questions  raised  novel.  But  when  we  had  proceeded 
thus  far,  and  were  ready  in  good  faith  to  make  good  the  sum 
requisite  on  Monday,  in  view  also  of  the  friendly  understand 
ing  had  after  midnight  with  all  parties  in  interest,  we  had  a 
right  to  expect  Byrnes's  liberation  on  Monday.  When  that  day 
came,  the  owner  refused  to  treat.  Learning  from  rumor  only 
that  four  thousand  dollars  had  been  named  as  the  sum  then 
asked  for,  I  on  Monday  addressed  Colonel  Suttle,  then  in 
court,  a  respectful  note,  reminding  him  of  the  position  of  things 
on  Saturday  night,  and  urging  that  Mr.  Grimes  had  the  right 
to  expect  the  original  agreement  to  be  carried  out,  but  further 
asking  him  if  any  additional  sum  was  required;  to  which  he 


THE  NEW  CRIME  331 

replied,  that  the  "case  is  before  the  Court,  and  must  await  its 
decision." 

"  Tuesday  morning,  I  had  an  interview  with  Colonel  Suttle  in 
the  U.  S.  marshal's  office.  He  seemed  disposed  to  listen  to 
me,  and  met  the  subject  in  a  manly  way.  He  said  he  wished 
to  take  the  boy  back,  after  which  he  would  sell  him.  He  wanted 
to  see  the  result  of  the  trial,  at  any  rate.  I  stated  to  him 
that  we  considered  his  claim  to  Byrnes  clear  enough,  and  that 
he  would  be  delivered  over  to  him,  urging  particularly  upon 
him  that  the  boy's  liberation  was  not  sought  for  except  with 
his  free  consent,  and  his  claim  being  fully  satisfied.  I  urged 
upon  him  no  consideration  of  the  fear  of  a  rescue,  or  possible 
unfavorable  result  of  the  trial  to  him,  but  offered  distinctly,  if 
he  chose,  to  have  the  trial  proceed,  and  whatever  might  be  the 
result,  still  to  satisfy  his  claim. 

"  I  stated  to  him  that  the  negotiation  was  not  sustained  by  any 
society  or  association  whatsoever,  but  that  it  was  done  by  some 
of  our  most  respectable  citizens,  who  were  desirous  not  to  ob 
struct  the  operation  of  the  law,  but  in  a  peaceable  and  honor 
able  manner  sought  an  adjustment  of  this  unpleasant  case;  as 
suring  him  that  this  feeling  was  general  among  the  people.  I 
read  to  him  a  letter,  addressed  to  me  by  a  highly-esteemed 
citizen,  urging  me  to  renew  my  efforts  to  accomplish  this,  and 
placing  at  my  disposal  any  amount  of  money  that  I  might 
think  proper  for  the  purpose. 

"  Colonel  Suttle  replied  that  he  appreciated  our  motives,  and 
that  he  felt  disposed  to  meet  us.  He  then  stated  what  he 
would  do.  I  accepted  his  proposal  at  once;  it  was  not  entirely 
satisfactory  to  me,  but  yet,  in  view  of  his  position,  as  he  de 
clared  to  me,  I  was  content.  At  my  request,  he  was  about  to 
commit  our  agreement  to  writing,  when  Mr.  B.  F.  Hallett  en 
tered  the  office,  and  they  two  engaged  in  conversation  apart 
from  me.  Presently  Colonel  Suttle  returned  to  me,  and  said: 
'*  I  must  withdraw  what  I  have  done  with  you."  We  both  im 
mediately  approached  Mr.  Hallett,  who  said,  pointing  to  the 
spot  where  Mr.  Batchelder  fell,  in  sight  of  which  we  stood, 
k  That  blood  must  be  avenged.'  I  made  some  pertinent  reply, 
rebuking  so  extraordinary  a  speech,  and  left  the  room. 

"  On  Friday,  soon  after  the  decision  had  been  rendered,  finding 
Colonel  Suttle  had  gone  on  board  the  cutter  at  an  early  hour, 
I  waited  upon  his  counsel,  Messrs.  Thomas  and  Parker,  at  the 
court-house,  and  there  renewed  my  proposition.  Both  these  gen 
tlemen  promptly  interested  themselves  in  my  purpose,  which 
was  to  tender  the  claimant  full  satisfaction,  and  receive  the 
surrender  of  Byrnes  from  him,  either  there,  in  State  Street, 


332  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

or  on  board  the  cutter,  at  his  own  option.  It  was  arranged 
between  us  that  Mr.  Parker  should  go  at  once  on  board  the 
cutter,  and  make  an  arrangement,  if  possible,  with  the  Colonel. 

"  I  provided  ample  funds,  and  returned  immediately  to  the 
court-house,  when  I  found  that  there  would  be  difficulty  in  get 
ting  on  board  the  cutter.  Application  was  made  by  me  to  the 
marshal;  he  interposed  no  objection,  and  I  offered  to  place  Mr. 
Parker  alongside  the  vessel.  Presently  Mr.  Parker  took  me  aside 
and  said  these  words:  "Colonel  Suttle  has  pledged  himself  to 
Mr.  Hallett  that  he  will  not  sell  his  boy  until  he  gets  him 
home."  Thus  the  matter  ended. 

"  In  considering,  Mr.  Editor,  whose  interference  was  potent  in 
thus  defeating  the  courteous  endeavors  of  citizens  of  Boston, 
peacefully  and  with  due  respect  to  the  laws  of  the  land,  to  put 
to  rest  the  painful  scenes  of  the  past  week,  it  must  be  borne 
in  mind  that  the  United  States  marshal,  who,  throughout  this 
unfortunate  negotiation,  has  conducted  himself  towards  us  with 
great  consideration,  consented  individually  to  hold  the  funds, 
as  a  party  not  in  interest,  thus  early  acquiescing  in  the  success 
of  our  plan;  the  owner  himself  was  willing  to  release  his  claim; 
his  counsel,  Messrs.  Thomas  and  Parker,  volunteered  their  aid 
in  raising  the  money,  urged  it,  and  interested  themselves  in  its 
speedy  accomplishment  —  even  in  the  latest  moment  when  it 
could  be  effected,  with  commendable  alacrity,  they  offered  their 
assistance;  the  United  States  commissioner  himself  consented  to 
be  at  his  post  until  midnight  of  Saturday,  to  give  his  official 
service  for  the  object  —  I  repeat,  in  view  of  all  these  consid 
erations,  the  conclusion  must  come  home  irresistibly  to  every 
candid  mind,  that  there  was  one  personage  who,  officially  or 
individually,  in  this  connection  either  did  do,  or  left  undone, 
something  whereby  his  interference  became  essential  to  a  less 
painful  termination  of  this  case. 

Respectfully, 

HAMILTON  WILLIS." 


IX 

THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA 

1854 

And  he  gave  them  their  request;  but  sent  leanness  into  their 
soul.  — PSALM   cvi.  15. 

Next  Tuesday  will  be  the  seventy-eighth  anni 
versary  of  American  Independence.  The  day  suggests 
a  national  subject  as  theme  for  meditation  this  morn 
ing.  The  condition  of  America  makes  it  a  dark  and 
a  sad  meditation.  I  ask  your  attention,  therefore,  to 
a  sermon  of  the  Dangers  which  threaten  the  Rights  of 
Man  in  America. 

The  human  race  is  permanent  as  the  Mississippi,  and 
like  that  is  fed  from  springs  which  never  dry ;  but  the 
several  nations  are  as  fleeting  as  its  waves.  In  the 
great  tide  of  humanity,  States  come  up,  one  after  the 
other,  a  wave  or  a  bubble ;  each  lasts  its  moment,  then 
dies  —  passed  off,  forgot : 

"  Or  like  the  snow-falls  in  the  river, 
A  moment  white  —  then  melts  forever," 

while  the  great  stream  of  humanity  rolls  ever  forward, 
from  time  to  eternity :  —  not  a  wave  needless ;  not  a 
snow  flake,  no  drop  of  rain  or  dew,  no  ephemeral  bub 
ble,  but  has  its  function  to  perform  in  that  vast,  un 
measured,  never-ending  stream. 

How  powerless  appears  a  single  man!  He  is  one 
of  a  thousand  million  men;  the  infinitesimal  of  a  vul 
gar  fraction ;  one  leaf  on  a  particular  tree  in  the  forest. 
A  single  nation,  like  America,  is  a  considerable  part 
of  mankind  now  living;  but  when  compared  with  the 

333 


334  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

human  race  of  all  time,  past  and  to  come,  it  seems  as 
nothing;  it  is  but  one  bough  in  the  woods.  Nay,  the 
population  of  the  earth,  to-day,  is  but  one  tree  in  the 
wide  primeval  forest  of  mankind,  which  covers  the 
earth  and  outlasts  the  ages.  The  leaf  may  fall  and 
not  be  missed  from  the  bough;  the  branch  may  be 
rudely  broken  off,  and  its  absence  not  marked;  the 
tree  will  die  and  be  succeeded  by  other  trees  in  the 
forest,  green  with  summer  beauty,  or  foodful  and 
prophetic  with  autumnal  seed.  Tree  by  tree,  the 
woods  will  pass  away,  and,  unobserved,  another  forest 
take  its  place, —  arising,  also,  tree  by  tree. 

How  various  the  duration  of  States  or  men  —  dying 
at  birth,  or  lasting  long  periods  of  time !  For  more 
than  three  thousand  years,  Egypt  stood  the  queen  of 
the  world's  young  civilization,  invincible  as  her  own 
pyramids,  which  yet  time  and  the  nations  alike  respect. 
From  Romulus,  the  first  half-mythologic  king  of  the 
seven-hilled  city,  to  Augustulus,  her  last  historic  em 
peror,  it  is  more  than  twelve  centuries.  At  this  day 
the  Austrian,  the  Spanish,  the  French  and  German  sov 
ereigns  sit  each  on  a  long-descended  throne.  Victoria 
is  "  daughter  of  a  hundred  kings."  Pope  Pius  the 
Ninth  claims  two  hundred  and  fifty-six  predecessors, 
canonical  and  infallible.  His  chair  is  reckoned 
more  than  eighteen  hundred  years  old;  and  it  rests  on 
an  Etrurian  platform  yet  ten  centuries  more  ancient. 
The  Turkish  throne  has  been  firmly  fixed  at  Constanti 
nople  for  four  hundred  years.  Individual  tyrants, 
like  summer  flies,  are  short-lived;  but  tyranny  is  old 
and  lasting.  The  family  of  ephemera,  permanent 
amid  the  fleeting,  is  yet  as  old  as  that  of  elephants, 
and  will  last  as  long. 

But   free   governments   have   commonly   been   brief. 


RIGHTS  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA         335 

If  the  Hebrew  people  had  well-nigh  a  thousand  years 
of  independent  national  life,  their  commonwealth 
lasted  but  about  three  centuries;  the  flower  of  their 
literature  and  religion  was  but  little  longer.  The  his 
toric  period  of  Greece  begins  776  B.  c. ;  her  inde 
pendence  was  all  over  in  six  hundred  and  thirty  years. 
The  Roman  deluge  had  swallowed  it  up.  No  Deucal 
ion  and  Pyrrha  could  re-people  the  land  with  men. 
Her  little  states  —  how  brief  was  their  hour  of  free 
dom  for  the  people !  From  the  first  annual  archon  of 
Athens  to  her  conquest  by  Philip,  and  the  death  of  her 
liberty,  it  was  only  two  hundred  and  forty-five  years ! 
Her  tree  of  freedom  grew  in  a  narrow  field  of  time 
and  briefly  bore  its  age-outlasting  fruit  of  science, 
literature,  and  art.  Now  the  tree  is  dead ;  its  frag 
ments  are  only  curious  Athenian  stone.  The  Grecian 
colonies  in  the  East,  ^Etolian,  Dorian,  Ionian  —  how 
fair  they  flourished  in  the  despotic  waste  of  Asia !  how 
soon  those  liberal  blossoms  died!  Even  her  colonies 
in  the  advancing  West  had  no  long  independent  life. 
Cyrene,  Syracusa,  Agrigentum,  Crotona,  Massilia, 
Saguntum, —  how  soon  they  died !  —  flowers  which  the 
savage  winter  swiftly  nipped. 

The  Roman  commonwealth  could  not  endure  five 
hundred  years.  Her  theocratic  Tarquin  the  Proud 
must  be  succeeded  by  a  more  despotic  dictator,  with 
the  style  of  democrat ;  and  Rome,  abhorring  still  the 
name  of  king,  must  see  all  her  liberties  laid  low.  The 
red  sea  of  despotism  opened  to  let  pass  one  noble  troop 
—  the  elder  Brutus  at  the  head,  the  younger  bringing 
up  the  rear  —  then  closed  again  and  swallowed  up  that 
worse  than  Egyptian  host,  clamoring  only  for  "  bread 
and  games ! " 

The  republics  of  Italy  in  the  middle  ages  were  no 


336  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

more  fortunate.  The  half-Grecian  commonwealths, 
Naples,  Amalfi,  Gaeta, —  what  promise  they  once 
held  forth  ;  and  what  a  warning  fate  1  They  were  only 
born  to  die.  A  similar  destiny  befell  the  towns  of 
more  northern  Italy,  where  freedom  later  found  a 
home, —  Milan,  Padua,  Genoa,  Verona,  Venice,  Bo 
logna,  Florence,  Pisa.  Nay,  in  the  midnight  of  the 
dark  ages,  seven  hundred  years  ago,  in  the  very  city 
of  the  Popes  and  C«sars,  in  the  center  of  that  red 
Roman  sea  of  despotism,  there  was  a  momentary  spot 
of  dry  free  land;  and  Arnaldo  da  Brescia  eloquently 
spoke  of  "  Roman  Liberty."  The  "  Roman  Repub 
lic  "  and  "  Roman  Senate "  became  once  more  fa 
miliar  words.  Italian  liberty,  Lombard  republics, — 
how  soon  they  all  went  down !  No  city  —  not  even 
Florence  —  kept  the  people's  freedom  safe  three  hun 
dred  years.  Silently  the  wealthy  nobles  and  despotic 
priests  sapped  the  walls.  Party  spirit  blinded  the  else 
clear  eyes :  "  the  State  may  perish ;  let  the  faction 
thrive."  The  Republicans  sought  to  crush  the  ad 
jacent  feeble  States.  They  forgot  justice,  the  higher 
law  of  God:  unworthy  of  liberty,  they  fell  and  died! 
Let  the  tyrant  swallow  up  the  Italian  towns ;  they  were 
unfit  for  freedom.  "  A  generous  disdain  of  one  man's 
will  is  to  republics  what  chastity  is  to  woman ;  "  they 
spurned  this  austere  virtue.  Let  them  serve  their  des 
pots.  "  Liberty  withdrew  from  a  people  who  dis 
graced  her  name."  Let  Dante  burn  his  poetic  brand 
of  infamy  into  the  forehead  of  his  countrymen.  But 
while  freedom  lasted,  how  fair  was  her  blossom,  how 
rich  and  sweet  her  fruit!  What  riches,  what  beauty, 
what  science,  letters,  art,  came  of  that  noble  stock! 
Italy  was  the  world's  wonder  —  for  a  day ;  its  sorrow 
ever  since.  So  the  cactus  flowers  into  one  gorgeous 


RIGHTS  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA         337 

ecstasy  of  bloom;  then  the  excessive  blossom,  with 
withering  collapse,  swoons  and  dies  of  its  voluptuous 
and  tropical  delight. 

Liberty  wanders  from  the  North,  through  Italy,  the 
fairest  of  all  earthly  lands ;  then  sits  sadly  down  on 
the  tallest  of  the  Alps,  and  once  more  reviews  those 
famous  towns;  the  jewels  that  adorn  the  purple  robe 
of  history  —  all  tarnished,  shattered,  spoiled.  Slowly 
she  turns  her  face  northward  and  longs  for  hope.  But 
even  the  Teutonic  towns,  where  freedom  ever  wore  a 
sober  dress,  were  only  spots  of  sunshine  in  a  day  of 
wintry  storm.  Swiss,  German,  Dutch,  they  were  brief 
as  fair.  In  Novogorod  and  in  Poland,  how  soon  was 
Slavonian  freedom  lost ! 

So  in  a  winter  day  in  the  country  have  I  seen  a  little 
frame  of  glass  screening  from  the  northern  snow  and 
ice  a  nicely  sheltered  spot,  where  careful  hands  tended 
little  delicate  plants,  for  beauty  and  for  use.  How 
fair  the  winter  garden  seemed  amid  the  wildering  snow, 
and  else  all-conquering  frost!  The  little  roses  lifted 
up  their  face  and  kissed  the  glass  which  sheltered  from 
the  storm.  But  anon,  some  rude  hand  broke  the  frail 
barrier  down,  and  in  an  hour  the  plants  were  frozen, 
stiff  and  dead ;  and  the  little  garden  was  all  filled  with 
snow  and  ice ;  —  a  garden  now  no  more ! 

How  often  do  you  see  in  a  great  city  a  man  per 
ish  in  his  youth,  bowed  down  by  lusts  of  the  body. 
The  graves  of  such  stand  thick  along  the  highway 
of  our  mortal  life, —  numberless,  nameless,  or  all  too 
conspicuously  marked.  Other  men  we  see  early 
bowed  down  by  their  ambition,  and  they  live  a  life 
far  worse  than  merely  sensual  death  —  themselves  the 
ghastliest  monuments,  beacons  of  ruin !  And  so,  along 

the  highway  that  mankind  treads,  there  are  the  open 
XIII— 23 


338  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

sepulchers  of  nations,  which  perished  of  their  sin; 
or  else  transformed  to  stone,  the  gloomy  sphinxes 
sit  there  by  the  wayside  —  a  hard,  dread,  awful  les 
son  to  the  nations  that  pass  by.  Let  America, 

"  The  heir  of  all  the  ages !  and  the  youngest  born  of  time !  " 

gather  up  every  jewel  which  the  prodigal  scattered 
from  his  hand,  look  down  into  his  grave,  and  then 
confront  these  gloomy,  awful  sphinxes,  and  learn  what 
lessons  of  guidance  they  have ;  or  of  warning,  if  it 
alone  is  to  be  found!  Ever  the  sphinx  has  a  riddle 
which  we  needs  must  learn,  or  else  perish. 

The  greater  part  of  a  nation's  life  is  not  delight ; 
it  is  discipline.  A  famous  political  philosopher,  who 
has  survived  two  revolutionary  storms  in  France,  has 
just  now  written,  "  God  has  made  the  condition  of 
all  men  more  severe  than  they  are  willing  to  believe. 
He  causes  them  at  all  times  to  purchase  the  success 
of  their  labors  and  the  progress  of  their  destiny 
at  a  dearer  price  than  they  had  anticipated." 

The  merchant  knows  how  difficult  it  is  to  acquire 
a  great  estate;  the  scholar,  youthful  and  impatient, 
well  understands  that  the  way  of  science  or  of  letters 
is  steep  and  hard  to  climb;  the  farmer,  knowing  the 
stern  climate  of  New  England,  her  niggard  soil,  rises 
early  and  retires  late,  and  is  never  off  his  guard. 
These  men  all  thrive.  But,  alas !  the  people  of  Amer 
ica  do  not  know  on  what  severe  conditions  alone  na 
tional  welfare  is  to  be  won.  Human  nature  is  yet 
only  a  New  England  soil  and  climate  for  freedom  to 
grow  in. 

Nations  may  come  to  an  end  through  the  decay 
of  the  family  they  belong  to;  and  thus  they  may 
die  out  of  old  age, —  for  there  is  an  infancy,  man- 


RIGHTS  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA 

hood,  and  old  age  to  a  nation  as  well  as  to  a  man. 
Then  the  nation  comes  to  a  natural  end,  and  like 
a  shock  of  corn  fully  ripe,  in  its  season,  it  is  gath 
ered  to  its  people.  But  I  do  not  find  that  any  State 
has  thus  lived  out  its  destiny,  and  died  a  natural 
death. 

Again,  States  may  perish  by  outward  violence,  mil 
itary  conquest, —  for  as  the  lion  in  the  wilderness 
eateth  up  the  wild  ass,  so  the  strong  nations  devour 
the  weak.  But  this  happened  most  often  in  ancient 
times,  when  men  and  States  were  more  rapacious  even 
than  now. 

Thirdly,  States  may  perish  through  their  own  vice, 
moral  or  political.  Their  national  institutions  may 
be  a  defective  machine  which  works  badly,  and  fails 
of  producing  national  welfare  of  body  or  spirit.  It 
may  not  secure  national  unity  of  action  —  there  be 
ing  no  national  gravitation  of  the  great  masses  which 
fly  asunder;  or  it  may  fail  of  individual  variety  of 
action  —  having  no  personal  freedom ;  excessive  na 
tional  gravitation  destroys  individual  cohesion,  and 
pulls  the  people  flat ;  the  men  are  slaves ;  they  can 
not  reach  the  moral  and  spiritual  welfare  necessary 
for  a  nation's  continuous  life.  In  both  these  cases 
the  vice  is  political;  the  machinery  is  defective,  made 
after  false  ideas.  Or  when  the  institutions  are  good 
and  capable  of  accommodating  the  nation's  increase  and 
growth,  the  vice  may  be  moral,  lying  deeper  in  the 
character  of  the  people.  They  may  have  a  false  and 
unimprovable  form  of  religion,  which  suits  not  the 
nature  of  man  or  of  God,  and  which  consequently 
produces  a  false  system  of  morals,  and  so  corrupts  the 
nation's  heart.  They  may  become  selfish,  gross,  cow 
ardly,  atheistic,  and  so  decay  inwardly  and  perish. 


340  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

If  left  all  alone,  such  a  people  will  rot  down  and 
die  of  internal  corruption.  Mexico  is  in  a  perishing 
condition  to-day ;  so  is  Spain ;  so  are  some  of  the 
young  nations  of  South  America,  and  some  of  the 
old  of  Asia  and  Europe.  Nothing  can  ever  save  Tur 
key, —  not  all  the  arms  of  all  the  allied  West ;  and 
though  Protestant  and  Catholic  join  hands,  Christen 
dom  cannot  propagate  Mahometanism,  nor  keep  it 
from  going  down. 

Leave  these  nations  to  their  fate  and  they  will 
die.  But  commonly,  they  are  not  left  to  themselves ; 
other  people  rush  in  and  conquer.  The  wild  indi 
vidual  man  is  rapacious  by  instinct.  The  present 
nations  are  rapacious  also  by  calculation ;  they  prey 
on  feeble  States.  The  hooded  crow  of  Europe 
watches  for  the  sickly  sheep.  In  America  the  wolves 
prowl  round  the  herd  of  buffaloes  and  seize  the  sickly, 
the  wounded,  and  the  old.  And  so  there  are  scaven 
gers  of  the  nations, —  filibusters,  the  flesh-flies  and 
carrion-vultures  of  the  world,  who  have  also  their 
function  to  perform.  Wealth  and  power  are  never 
left  without  occupants.  Rome  was  corrupt,  her 
institutions  bad,  her  religion  worn  out,  her  morals  des 
perate  ;  northern  nations  came  upon  her.  "  Whereso 
ever  the  body  is,  thither  the  eagles  will  be  gathered 
together." 

In  Europe  there  are  nations  in  this  state  of  decay, 
from  moral  or  political  vice.  All  the  Italo-Greek  pop 
ulations,  most  of  the  Celto-Roman,  all  the  Celtic,  all 
the  old  Asiatic  populations  —  the  Hungarians  and 
Turks.  The  Teutonic  and  Slavic  families  alone  seem 
to  prosper,  full  of  vigorous,  new  life,  capable  of  mak 
ing  new  improvements,  to  suit  the  altered  phases  of 
the  world. 


RIGHTS  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA 

In  America  there  is  only  one  family  in  a  condition 
of  advance,  of  hardy  health.  Spanish  America  is 
in  a  state  of  decay;  she  has  a  bad  form  of  religion, 
and  bad  morals ;  her  republics  only  "  guarantee  the 
right  of  assassination ;  "  an  empire  is  her  freest  state. 
But  in  the  north  of  North  America  the  Anglo-Saxon 
British  colonies  rapidly  advance  in  material  and  spir 
itual  development,  and  one  day  doubtless  they  will 
separate  from  the  parent  stem  and  become  an  inde- 
dependent  tree.  The  roots  of  England  run  under  the 
ocean;  they  come  up  in  Africa,  India,  Australia, 
America,  in  many  an  island  of  all  the  seas.  Great 
fresh,  living  trunks  grow  up  therefrom.  One  day 
these  offshoots  will  become  self-supporting,  with  new 
and  independent  roots,  and  ere  long  will  separate  from 
the  parent  stem ;  then  there  will  be  a  great  Anglo- 
Saxon  trunk  in  Australia,  another  in  India,  another 
in  Africa,  another  in  the  north  of  our  own  continent, 
and  yet  others  scattered  over  the  manifold  islands  of 
the  sea,  an  Anglo-Saxon  forest  of  civilization. 

But  in  the  center  of  the  North  American  continent, 
the  same  Anglo-Saxons  have  passed  from  their  first 
condition  of  scattered  and  dependent  colonies,  and 
become  a  united  and  independent  nation,  five-and- 
twenty  millions  strong.  Our  fellow-countrymen  here 
in  America  compose  one-fortieth  part  of  all  the  in 
habitants  of  the  globe.  We  are  now  making  the 
greatest  political  experiment  which  the  sun  ever  looked 
down  upon. 

First,  we  are  seeking  to  found  a  State  on  industry, 
and  not  war.  All  the  prizes  of  America  are  rewards 
of  toil,  not  fighting.  We  are  ruled  by  the  constable, 
not  by  the  soldier.  It  is  only  in  exceptional  cases, 
when  the  liberal  institutions  of  America  are  to  be 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

trodden  under  foot,  that  the  constable  disappears, 
and  the  red  arm  of  the  soldier  clutches  at  the  people's 
throat.  That  is  the  first  part  of  our  scheme  —  we  are 
aiming  to  found  an  industrial  State. 

Next,  the  national  theory  of  the  government  is  a 
democracy  —  the  government  of  all,  by  all,  for  all. 
All  officers  depend  on  election,  none  are  foreordained. 
There  are  to  be  no  special  privileges,  only  natural, 
universal  rights. 

It  would  be  a  fair  spectacle, —  a  great  industrial 
commonwealth,  spread  over  half  the  continent,  and 
folding  in  its  bosom  one-fortieth  of  God's  whole  fam 
ily  !  It  is  a  lovely  dream ;  not  Athenian  Plato,  nor 
English  Thomas  More,  nor  Bacon,  nor  Harrington, 
ever  dared  to  write  on  paper  so  fair  an  ideal  as  our 
fathers  and  we  have  essayed  to  put  into  men.  I  once 
thought  this  dream  of  America  would  one  day  be 
come  a  blessed  fact!  We  have  many  elements  of  na 
tional  success.  Our  territory  for  quantity  and  quality 
is  all  we  could  ask ;  our  origin  is  of  the  Caucasian's 
best.  No  nation  had  ever  so  fair  a  beginning  as 
we.  The  Anglo-Saxon  is  a  good  hardy  stock 
for  national  welfare  to  grow  on.  To  my  American 
eye,  it  seems  that  human  nature  had  never  anything 
so  good  for  popular  liberty  to  be  grafted  into.  We 
are  already  strong,  and  fear  nothing  from  any  foreign 
power.  The  violent  cannot  take  us  by  force.  No 
nation  is  our  enemy. 

But  the  question  now  comes,  Is  America  to  live  or 
to  die?  If  we  live,  what  life  shall  it  be?  Shall  we 
fall  into  the  sepulcher  of  departed  States  —  a  new  de 
bauchee  of  the  nations?  Shall  we  live  petrified  to 
stone,  a  despotism  many-headed,  sitting  —  another 
sphinx  —  by  the  wayside  of  history,  to  scare  young 


RIGHTS  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA         343 

nations  in  their  march  and  impede  their  progress?  Or 
shall  we  pursue  the  journey  —  a  great,  noble-hearted 
commonwealth,  a  nation  possessing  the  continent,  full 
of  riches,  full  of  justice,  full  of  wisdom,  full  of  piety, 
and  full  of  peace?  It  depends  on  ourselves.  It  is 
for  America,  for  this  generation  of  Americans,  to  say 
which  of  the  three  shall  happen.  No  fate  holds  us  up. 
Our  character  is  our  destiny. 

I  am  not  a  timid  man ;  I  am  no  excessive  praiser  of 
times  passed  by;  I  seldom  take  counsel  of  my  fears, 
often  of  my  hopes ;  —  but  now  I  must  say  that  since 
'76  our  success  was  never  so  doubtful  as  at  this  time. 
England  is  in  peril;  the  despots  on  the  Continent  hate 
her  free  Parliament,  which  makes  laws  for  the  people 
-just  laws;  they  hate  her  free  speech,  which  tells 
every  grievance  at  home  or  abroad ;  they  hate  her 
free  soil,  which  offers  a  home  to  every  exile,  republican 
or  despotic.  England  is  in  peril,  for  every  tyrant 
hates  her.  Russia  is  in  danger,  for  the  two  strongest 
powers  of  Christendom  have  just  clasped  hands,  and 
sworn  an  oath  to  fight  against  that  great  marauding 
empire  of  the  East.  Their  armies  threaten  her  cities ; 
her  sovereign  deserts  his  capital;  her  treasure  is  car 
ried  a  thousand  miles  inward ;  the  western  fleets  block 
ade  her  ports  and  sweep  her  navies  from  the  sea.  But 
Russia  has  no  peril  like  ours ;  England  has  no  danger 
so  great  as  that  which  threatens  us  this  day:  In  the 
darkest  periods  of  the  American  Revolution,  when 
Washington's  army,  without  blankets,  without  coats, 
without  shoes,  fled  through  the  Jerseys,  when  they 
marked  the  ice  of  the  Delaware,  and  left  revolutionary 
tracks  in  frozen  blood,  we  were  not  in  such  peril  as 
to-day.  When  General  Gage  had  the  throat  of  Bos 
ton  in  his  hand,  and  perfidiously  disarmed  the  people, 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

we  were  not  in  such  danger.  Yea,  when  four  hun 
dred  houses  in  yonder  town  went  up  in  one  great 
cloud  of  smoke  towards  heaven,  the  liberties  of  Amer 
ica  were  not  in  such  peril  as  they  are  to-day.  Then 
we  were  called  to  fight  with  swords  —  and  when  that 
work  was  to  be  done,  was  America  ever  found  wanting  ? 
Then  our  adversary  was  the  other  side  of  the  sea,  and 
wicked  statutes  were  enacted  against  us  in  Westmin 
ster  Hall.  Now  our  enemy  is  at  home ;  and  some 
thing  far  costlier  than  swords  is  to  be  called  into 
service. 

Look  at  some  of  these  dangers.  I  shall  pass  by  all 
that  are  trifling.  I  find  four  great  perils.  Here 
they  are :  — 

I.  There  comes  the  danger  from  our  exclusive  de 
votion  to  riches. 

II.  The  danger  from  the  Roman  Catholic  Church, 
established  in  the  midst  of  us. 

III.  The    danger   from    the    idea    that   there   is    no 
higher  law  above  the  statutes  which  men  make. 

IV.  The    danger   from    the    institution    of   slavery, 
which  is  based  on  that  atheistic  idea  last  named. 

I.  OF  THE  DANGER  WHICH  COMES  FROM  OUR  EXCLU 
SIVE  DEVOTION  TO  RICHES. 

Power  is  never  left  without  a  possessor:  when  it  fell 
from  the  theocratic  and  military  classes,  from  the 
priest,  the  noble,  and  the  king,  it  passed  to  the  hands  of 
the  capitalists.  In  America,  ecclesiastical  office  is  not 
power;  noble  or  royal  birth  is  of  small  value.  If 
Madison  or  Jefferson  had  left  any  sons  but  mulattoes, 
their  distinguished  birth  would  avail  them  nothing. 
The  son  of  Patrick  Henry  lived  a  strolling  school- 


RIGHTS  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA         345 

master,  and  a  pauper's  funeral  was  asked  for  his 
body.  Money  is  power;  the  only  permanent  and 
transmissible  power ;  it  goes  by  device.  Money  "  can 
ennoble  sots  and  slaves  and  cowards." 

It  gives  rank  in  the  Church.  The  millionaire  is 
always  a  saint.  The  priests  of  commerce  will  think 
twice  before  damning  a  man  who  enhances  their  sal 
ary  and  gives  them  dinners.  In  one  thing  the  Amer 
ican  heaven  resembles  the  New  Jerusalem :  —  its 
pavement  is  "  of  fine  gold."  The  capitalist  has  the 
chief  seat  in  our  Christian  synagogue.  It  is  a  rare 
minister  who  dares  assail  a  vice  which  has  riches  on  its 
side.  Is  there  a  clergyman  at  the  South  who  speaks 
against  the  profitable  wickedness  which  chains  three 
million  American  men  ?  How  few  at  the  North ! 
European  gentility  is  ancient  power ;  American  is  new 
money  hot  from  the  stamping. 

In  society,  money  is  genteel;  it  is  always  respecta 
ble.  The  high  places  of  society  do  not  belong  to 
ecclesiastical  men,  as  in  Rome;  to  military  men,  as 
in  St.  Petersburg;  to  men  of  famous  family,  as  in 
England  and  Spain ;  to  men  of  science  and  literature, 
men  of  genius,  as  in  Berlin ;  but  to  rich  men. 

Money  gives  distinction  in  literature,  so  far  as  the 
literary  class  can  control  the  public  judgment.  The 
colleges  revere  a  rich  man's  son;  they  name  profes 
sorships  after  such  as  endow  them  with  money,  not 
mind.  Critics  respect  a  rich  man's  book ;  if  he  has 
not  brains,  he  has  brass,  which  is  better.  The  cap 
italist  is  admitted  a  member  of  the  Academies  of  Arts 
and  Sciences,  of  collegiate  societies ;  if  he  cannot  write 
dissertations,  he  can  give  suppers,  and  there  must  be 
a  material  basis  for  science.  At  anniversaries,  he  re 
ceives  the  honorary  degree.  "  'Tis  easier  to  weigh 


J34-6  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

purses,  sure,  than  brains."  A  dull  scholar  is  expelled 
from  college  for  idleness,  and  twenty  years  later  returns 
to  New  England  with  half  a  million  of  money,  and 
gets  his  degree.  As  he  puzzles  at  the  Latin  diploma, 
he  asks,  "  If  I  had  come  home  poor,  I  wonder  how 
long  it  would  have  taken  the  '  Alma  Mater '  to  find 
out  that  I  was  ever  a  '  good  scholar,'  and  now  '  merited 
an  honorary  degree  '-  -  facts  which  I  never  knew  be 
fore  ! " 

In  politics,  money  has  more  influence  here  than  in 
Turkey,  Austria,  Russia,  England,  or  Spain.  For 
in  our  politics  the  interest  of  property  is  preferred 
before  all  others.  National  legislation  almost  invaria 
bly  favors  capital,  and  not  the  laboring  hand.  The 
Federalists  feared  that  riches  would  not  be  safe  in 
America  —  the  many  would  plunder  the  wealthy  few. 
It  was  a  groundless  fear.  In  an  industrial  common 
wealth,  property  is  sure  of  popular  protection. 
Where  all  own  hayricks  no  one  scatters  firebrands. 
Nowhere  in  the  world  is  property  so  secure  or  so 
much  respected ;  for  it  rests  on  a  more  natural  basis 
than  elsewhere.  Nowhere  is  wealth  so  powerful,  in 
Church,  society,  and  State.  In  Kentucky  and  else 
where,  it  can  take  the  murderer's  neck  out  of  the  hal 
ter.  It  can  make  the  foolish  "  wise ;  "  the  dull  man 
"  eloquent ;  "  the  mean  man  "  honorable,  one  of  our 
most  prominent  citizens ;  "  the  heretic  "  sound  ortho 
dox;"  the  ugly  "fair;"  the  old  man  a  "desirable 
young  bridegroom."  Nay,  vice  itself  becomes  virtue, 
and  man-stealing  is  Christianity! 

Here,  nothing  but  the  voter's  naked  ballot  holds 
money  in  check :  there  are  no  great  families  with  their 
historic  tradition,  as  in  all  Europe ;  no  bodies  of  liter 
ary  or  scientific  men  to  oppose  their  genius  to  mere 


RIGHTS  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA         347 

material  gold.  The  Church  is  no  barrier,  only  its  serv 
ant,  for  when  the  minister  depends  on  the  wealth  of 
his  parish  for  support,  you  know  the  common  con 
sequence.  Lying  rides  on  obligation's  back.  The 
minister  respects  the  hand  that  feeds  him :  "  the  ox 
knoweth  his  owner,  and  the  ass  his  master's  crib." 
Yet  now  and  then  a  minister  looks  starvation  in  the 
face,  and  continues  his  unpopular  service  of  God. 
No  political  institutions  check  the  authority  of  wealth ; 
it  can  bribe  and  buy  the  venal ;  the  brave  it  sometimes 
can  intimidate  and  starve.  Money  can  often  carry 
a  bill  through  the  legislature  —  State  or  national. 
The  majority  is  hardly  strong  enough  to  check  this 
pecuniary  sway. 

In  the  "  most  democratic "  States,  gold  is  most 
powerful.  Thus,  in  fifteen  States  of  America,  three 
hundred  thousand  proprietors  own  thirteen  hundred 
millions  of  money  invested  in  men.  In  virtue  thereof 
they  control  the  legislation  of  their  own  States,  making 
their  institutions  despotic,  and  not  republican;  they 
keep  the  poor  white  man  from  political  power,  from 
comfort,  from  the  natural  means  of  education  and 
religion;  they  destroy  his  self-respect,  and  leave  him 
nothing  but  his  body;  from  the  poorest  of  the  poor, 
they  take  away  his  body  itself.  Next  they  control 
the  legislation  of  America;  they  make  the  President, 
they  appoint  the  Supreme  Court,  they  control  the 
Senate,  the  Representatives;  they  determine  the  do 
mestic  and  foreign  policy  of  the  nation.  Finally, 
they  affect  the  laws  of  all  the  other  sixteen  States  — 
the  Southern  hand  coloring  the  local  institutions  of 
New  Haven  and  Boston. 

That  is  only  one  example  —  one  of  many.  Russia 
is  governed  by  a  long-descended  czar;  England  by  a 


348  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

queen,  nobles,  and  gentry, —  men  of  ancient  family, 
with  culture  and  riches.  America  is  ruled  by  a  troop 
of  men  with  nothing  but  new  money  and  what  it  brings 
-three  hundred  thousand  slaveholders  and  their 
servants,  North  and  South.  Boston  is  under  their 
thumb ;  at  their  command  the  mayor  spits  in  the  face 
of  Massachusetts  law,  and  plants  a  thousand  bayonets 
at  the  people's  throat.  They  make  ball-cartridges 
under  the  eaves  of  Faneuil  Hall. 

Accordingly,  money  is  the  great  object  of  desire 
and  pursuit.  There  are  material  reasons  why  this  is 
so  in  many  lands :  —  in  America  there  are  also  social, 
political,  and  ecclesiastical  reasons  for  it.  "  To  be 
rich  is  to  be  blessed :  poverty  is  damnation :  "  that  is 
the  popular  creed. 

The  public  looks  superficially  at  the  immediate  ef 
fect  of  this  opinion,  at  this  exceeding  and  exclusive 
desire  for  riches ;  they  see  its  effect  on  Israel  and  John 
Jacob,  on  Stephen,  Peter,  and  Robert:  it  makes  them 
rich,  and  their  children  respectable  and  famous.  Few 
ask,  What  effect  will  this  have  on  the  nation?  They 
foresee  not  the  future  evil  it  threatens.  Nay,  they 
do  not  consider  how  it  debauches  the  institutions  of 
America  —  ecclesiastical,  academic,  social,  political ; 
how  it  corrupts  the  hearts  of  the  people,  making  them 
prize  money  as  the  end  of  life,  and  manhood  as  only 
the  means  thereto,  making  money  master,  and  human 
nature  its  tool  or  servant,  but  no  more. 

The  political  effect  of  this  unnatural  esteem  for 
riches  is  not  at  all  well  understood.  History  but 
too  plainly  tells  of  the  dangerous  power  of  priests  or 
nobles  consolidated  into  a  class,  and  their  united  forces 
directed  by  a  single  able  head.  The  power  of  allied 
kings,  concentrating  whole  realms  of  men  and  money 


RIGHTS  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA         349 

on  a  single  point;  the  effect  of  armies  and  navies  col 
lected  together  and  marshaled  by  a  single  will;  is  all 
too  boldly  written  in  the  ruin  of  many  a  State.  We 
have  often  been  warned  against  the  peril  from  forts, 
and  castles,  and  standing  armies.  But  the  power  of 
consolidated  riches,  the  peril  which  accumulated  prop 
erty  may  bring  upon  the  liberties  of  an  industrial 
commonwealth,  though  formidably  near,  as  yet  is  all 
unknown,  all  unconsidered  too.  Already  the  consol 
idated  property  of  one-eightieth  part  of  the  popula 
tion  controls  all  the  rest. 

Two  special  causes,  both  exceptional  and  fleeting, 
just  now  stimulate  the  acquisitiveness  of  America  al 
most  to  madness. 

One  is  the  rapid  development  of  the  art  of  manu 
facturing  the  raw  materials  gathered  from  the  bosom 
or  the  surface  of  the  earth.  The  invention  of  printing 
made  education  and  freedom  possible  on  a  large  scale ; 
one  of  the  immediate  results  thereof  is  this  —  the  head 
briefly  performs  the  else  long-protracted  labor  of  the 
hand.  Wind,  water,  fire,  steam,  lightning,  have  be 
come  pliant  forces  to  manufacture  wood,  flax,  cotton, 
wool,  and  all  the  metals.  This  result  is  nowhere  so 
noticeable  as  in  New  England,  where  education  is  al 
most  universal.  The  New  England  school-house  is 
the  machine-shop  of  America.  Wliat  the  State  in 
vests  in  slates  and  teachers  pays  dividends  in  hard 
coin.  This  new  power  over  the  material  world,  the 
first  and  unexpected  commercial  result  of  the  public 
education  of  the  people,  gives  a  great  and  perhaps 
lasting  stimulus  to  the  pursuit  of  wealth.  It  affects  the 
most  undisciplined  portions  of  the  world, —  for  the  edu 
cated  man  leaves  much  rough  labor  for  the  ignorant, 
and  enhances  the  demand  for  the  results  of  their  toil. 


350  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

The  thinking  head  raises  the  wages  of  all  mere  hands. 
Hence  arises  the  increased  value  of  slaves  at  the  South, 
and  the  rapid  immigration  of  the  most  ignorant  Irish 
men  to  the  North.  They  are  to  the  thoughtful  pro 
jector  what  the  Merrimac  is  to  the  cotton-spinner  — 
a  rude  force  pliant  before  his  will.  Dr.  Faustus  is 
the  unconscious  pioneer  of  many  a  pilgrimage. 

The  other  cause  is  the  discovery  of  gold  in  Cali 
fornia  and  then  in  Australia.  This  doubles  or  trebles 
the  pecuniary  momentum  of  America.  Its  stimula 
ting  influence  on  our  covetousness,  accumulation,  and 
luxury,  is  obvious.  What  further  and  ultimate  ef 
fects  it  will  produce  I  shall  not  now  pause  to  inquire. 
When  a  whirlwind  rises,  all  men  can  see  that  dust  is 
mounting  to  the  sky. 

Besides,  the  form  of  American  industry  is  changed. 
Once  New  England  and  all  the  North  were  chiefly 
agricultural;  manufactures  and  commerce  were  con 
ducted  on  a  small  scale ;  and  therein  each  man  wrought 
on  his  own  account.  There  was  a  great  deal  of  in 
dividual  activity,  individuality  of  character.  Few 
men  worked  for  wages.  Now  New  England  is  mainly 
manufacturing  and  commercial,  Vermont  is  the  only 
farming  State.  Mechanics,  men  and  women,  work 
for  wages ;  many  in  the  employment  of  a  single  man ; 
thousands  in  the  pay  of  one  company,  organized  by 
superior  ability.  The  workman  loses  his  independ 
ence,  and  is  not  only  paid  but  governed  also  by  his 
employer's  money.  His  opinions  and  character  are 
formed  after  the  prescribed  pattern,  by  the  mill  he 
works  in.  The  old  military  organizations  for  de 
fense  or  aggression  brought  freedom  of  body  dis 
tinctly  in  peril:  the  new  industrial  organizations  jeop 
ardize  spiritual  individuality,  all  freedom  of  mind  and 


RIGHTS  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA         351 

conscience.  New  England  is  a  monumental  proof 
thereof. 

Another  change  also  follows :  the  military  habits  of 
the  North  are  all  gone.  Once  New  England  had 
more  firelocks  than  householders ;  every  man  was  a  sol 
dier  and  a  marksman.  Now  the  people  have  lost  their 
taste  for  military  discipline,  and  neither  keep  nor  bear 
arms.  Of  course  a  few  holiday  soldiers,  called  out  by 
a  doctor,  and  commanded  by  an  apothecary,  can  over 
awe  the  town. 

The  Northern,  and  especially  the  Eastern  and  Mid 
dle  States,  are  the  great  center  of  this  industrial  de 
velopment.  Here,  and  especially  in  New  England 
the  desire  for  riches  has  become  so  powerful  that  a 
very  large  proportion  of  our  men  of  the  greatest 
practical  intellect  have  almost  exclusively  turned  their 
attention  to  purely  productive  business,  to  commerce 
and  manufactures.  They  rarely  engage  in  the  work 
of  politics  —  unprofitable  and  distasteful  to  the  in 
dividual,  and,  at  first  sight,  merely  preservative  and 
defensive  to  the  community.  This  they  shun  or 
neglect,  as  the  mass  of  men  avoid  military  discipline. 

The  statutes  must  be  made  and  administered  by  poli 
ticians.  Here  they  are  not  able  men.  Of  the  forty- 
one  New  England  delegates  in  Congress,  of  the  six 
governors,  of  the  many  other  professional  leaders  in 
politics,  how  many  first-rate  men  are  there?  how  many 
middle-sized  second-rate  men?  The  control  of  the 
national  affairs  passes  out  of  the  fingers  of  the  North 
—  which  has  yet  three-fifths  of  the  population,  and 
more  than  four-fifths  of  the  speculative  and  practical 
intelligence  and  material  wealth.  The  nation  is  con 
trolled  by  the  South,  whose  ablest  men  almost  exclu 
sively  attend  to  politics.  Besides,  the  State  politics 


352  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

of  the  North  fall  into  the  hands  of  men  quite  inade 
quate  to  such  a  weighty  trust.  This  mistake  is  as 
fatal  as  it  would  be  in  time  of  war  to  send  all  the  able- 
bodied  men  to  the  plough,  and  the  women  and  children 
to  the  camp.  We  are  mismanaged  at  home,  and  dis 
honorably  routed  in  the  Federal  capital.  In  the  pres 
ent  state  of  the  world  I  think  no  nation  would  be 
justified  in  turning  non-resistant,  tearing  down  its 
forts,  disbanding  its  armies,  melting  up  its  guns  and 
swords;  and  I  am  sure  the  North  suffers  sadly  from 
devoting  so  large  a  part  of  its  masterly,  practical  men 
to  the  productive  work  of  commerce  and  manufactures. 
Her  politicians  are  not  strong  enough  for  her  own  de 
fense.  In  American  politics  the  great  battle  of  ideas 
and  principles,  yea,  of  measures,  is  to  be  fought. 
Shall  we  keep  our  Washingtons  surveying  land? 

The  national  effect  of  this  estimate  and  accumula 
tion  of  riches  is  to  produce  a  great  and  rapid  develop 
ment  of  the  practical  understanding;  a  great  love  for 
vulgar  finery  which  pleases  the  palate  or  the  eye ;  great 
luxury  of  dress,  ornament,  furniture.  You  see  this 
in  the  hotels  and  public  carriages  on  land  and  sea,  in 
the  costume  of  the  nation,  at  public  and  private  tables. 
Along  with  this  there  comes  a  certain  refinement  of  the 
public  taste. 

But  there  is  no  proportionate  culture  of  the  higher 
intellectual  faculties  —  of  the  reason  and  imagination ; 
still  less  of  yet  nobler  powers  —  moral,  affectional, 
and  religious.  From  the  common  school  to  the  col 
lege,  the  chief  things  taught  are  arithmetic  and  elocu 
tion  ;  not  the  art  to  reason  and  create,  but  the  trade  to 
calculate  and  express.  Everything  is  measured  by 
the  money  standard.  "  The  protection  of  property 
is  the  great  object  of  government."  The  politician 


RIGHTS  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA         353 

must  suit  the  pecuniary  interest  of  his  constituency, 
though  at  the  cost  of  justice;  the  writer,  author,  or 
editor,  the  pecuniary  interest  of  his  readers,  though 
at  the  sacrifice  of  truth;  the  minister,  the  pecuniary 
interest  of  his  audience,  though  piety  and  morality 
both  come  to  the  ground.  Mammon  is  a  profitable 
god  to  worship  —  he  gives  dinners. 

I  think  it  must  be  confessed  in  the  last  eighty  years 
the  general  moral  and  religious  tone  of  the  people  in 
the  free  States  has  improved.  This  change  comes 
from  the  natural  forward  tendency  of  mankind,  the 
instinct  of  development  quickened  by  our  free  institu 
tions.  But,  at  the  same  time,  it  is  quite  plain  to  me 
that  the  moral  and  religious  tone  of  American  politi 
cians,  writers,  and  preachers,  has  proportionately  and 
absolutely  gone  down.  You  see  this  in  the  great 
towns :  if  Boston  were  once  the  "  Athens  of  America," 
she  is  now  only  the  "  Corinth."  Athens  has  retreated 
to  some  inland  Salamis. 

But,  in  general,  this  peril  from  the  excessive  pursuit 
of  riches  comes  unavoidably  from  our  position  in  time 
and  space,  and  our  consequent  political  institutions. 
It  belongs  to  the  period  of  transition  from  the  old 
form  of  vicarious  rule  by  theocratic,  military,  and 
aristocratic  governments,  to  the  personal  administra 
tion  of  an  industrial  commonwealth.  I  do  not  much 
fear  this  peril,  nor  apprehend  lasting  evil  from  it. 
One  of  the  great  things  which  mankind  now  most  needs 
is  power  over  the  material  world  as  the  basis  for  the 
higher  development  of  our  spiritual  faculties.  Wealth 
is  indispensable;  it  is  the  material  pulp  around  the 
spiritual  seed.  No  nation  was  ever  too  rich,  too  well 
fed,  clad,  housed,  and  comforted.  The  human  race 

still  suffers  from  poverty,  the  great  obstacle  to  our 
XIII— 22 


354  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

progress.  Doubtless  we  shall  make  many  errors  in 
our  national  attempt  to  organize  the  productive  forces 
into  an  industrial  State,  as  our  fathers  —  thousands  of 
years  ago  —  in  organizing  their  destructive  powers 
into  a  military  state.  Once,  man  cut  his  fingers  with 
iron;  he  now  poisons  them  with  gold.  All  Christen 
dom  shares  this  peril,  though  America  feels  it  most. 
She  is  now  like  a  thriving  man  who  gets  rich  fast,  and 
thinks  more  than  he  ought  of  his  money,  and  less  of 
his  manhood.  Some  misfortune,  the  ruin  of  a  prodi 
gal  son  perishing  in  quicksands  of  gold,  will,  by  and 
by,  convince  him  that  riches  is  not  the  only  thing  in 
life. 

II.  OF  THE  DANGER  WHICH  COMES  FROM  THE  ROMAN 
CATHOLIC  CHURCH. 

The  Roman  Catholic  Church  claims  infallibility  for 
itself,  and  denies  spiritual  freedom,  liberty  of  mind 
or  conscience,  to  its  members.  It  is  therefore  the  foe 
to  all  progress ;  it  is  deadly  hostile  to  democracy.  To 
mankind  this  is  its  first  command  —  Submit  to  an  ex 
ternal  authority ;  subordinate  your  human  nature  to 
an  element  foreign  and  abhorrent  thereto !  It  aims 
at  absolute  domination  over  the  body  and  the  spirit  of 
man.  The  Catholic  Church  can  never  escape  from  the 
consequences  of  her  first  principle.  She  is  the  nat 
ural  ally  of  tyrants,  and  the  irreconcilable  enemy  of 
freedom.  Individual  Catholics  in  America,  as  else 
where,  are  inconsistent,  and  favor  the  progress  of 
mankind.  Alas !  such  are  exceptional ;  the  Catholic 
Church  has  an  iron  logic,  and  consistently  hates  lib 
erty  in  all  its  forms  —  free  thought,  free  speech. 

I  quote  the  words  of  her  own  authors  in  America, 
recently  uttered  by  the  press.  "  Protestantism 


RIGHTS  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA         355 

has  not  and  never  can  have  any  rights  where 
Catholicity  is  triumphant."  "  We  lose  all  the  breath 
we  expend  in  declaiming  against  bigotry  and  intol 
erance,  and  in  favor  of  religious  liberty."  "  Religious 
liberty  [in  America]  is  merely  endured  until  the  op 
posite  can  be  carried  into  execution  without  peril  to 
the  Catholic  world."  "  Catholicity  will  one  day  rule 
in  America,  and  then  religious  liberty  is  at  an  end." 
"  The  very  name  of  Liberty  .  .  .  ought  to  be 
banished  from  the  very  domain  of  religion."  "  No 
man  has  a  right  to  choose  his  religion."  "  Catholicism 
is  the  most  intolerant  of  creeds.  It  is  intolerance  it 
self,  for  it  is  the  truth  itself."  * 

The  Catholic  population  is  not  great  in  numbers. 
In  1853,  there  were  in  America  1,71£  churches,  1,574 
priests,  396  theological  students,  32  bishops,  7  arch 
bishops,  church-property  worth  about  $10,000,000, 
and  1,728,000  Catholics.  But  most  of  them  are  of 
the  Celtic  stock,  which  has  never  much  favored  Prot 
estantism  or  individual  liberty  in  religion;  and  in  this 
respect  is  widely  distinguished  from  the  Teutonic  pop 
ulation,  who  have  the  strongest  ethnological  instinct  for 
personal  freedom. 

Besides,  the  Catholics  are  governed  with  absolute 
rigor  by  their  clergy,  who  are  celibate  priests,  a  social 
caste  by  themselves,  not  sympathizing  with  mankind, 
but  emasculated  of  the  natural  humanities  of  our  race. 
There  are  exceptional  men  amongst  them,  but  such 
seems  to  be  the  rule  with  the  class  of  Catholic  priests 
in  America.  They  are  united  into  one  compact  body, 

*  The  above,  and  many  more  similar  declarations,  may  be 
found  in  a  little  pamphlet  — "  Familiar  Letters  to  John  B. 
Fitzpatrick,  the  Catholic  Bishop  of  Boston,  by  an  Independent 
Irishman."  Boston,  1854. 


356  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

with  complete  corporate  unity  of  action,  and  ruled 
despotically  by  their  bishops,  archbishops,  and  pope. 
The  Catholic  worshiper  is  not  to  think,  but  to  believe 
and  obey ;  the  priest  not  to  reason  and  consider,  but 
to  proclaim  and  command;  the  voter  is  not  to  inquire 
and  examine,  but  to  deposit  his  ballot  as  the  ecclesias 
tical  authority  directs.  The  better  religious  orders 
do  not  visit  America;  the  Jesuits,  the  most  subtle 
enemies  of  humanity,  come  in  abundance ;  some  are 
known,  others  stealthily  prowl  about  the  land,  all  the 
more  dangerous  for  their  disguise.  They  all  act  under 
the  direction  of  a  single  head.  One  shrewd  Protestant 
minister  may  be  equal  to  one  Jesuit,  but  no  ten  or  forty 
Protestant  ministers  is  a  match  for  a  combination  of  ten 
Jesuits,  bred  to  the  business  of  deception,  knowing  no 
allegiance  to  truth  or  justice,  consciously  disregarding 
the  higher  law  of  God,  with  the  notorious  maxim  that 
"  the  end  justifies  the  means,"  bound  to  their  order  by 
the  most  stringent  oath,  and  devoted  to  the  worst  pur 
poses  of  the  Catholic  Church. 

All  these  priests  owe  allegiance  to  a  foreign  head. 
It  is  not  an  American  Church ;  it  is  Roman,  not  free, 
individual,  but  despotic;  nay,  in  its  designs  not  so 
much  human  as  merely  papal. 

The  Catholic  Church  opposes  everything  which  fa 
vors  democracy  and  the  natural  rights  of  man.  It 
hates  our  free  churches,  free  press,  and,  above  all,  our 
free  schools.  No  owl  more  shuns  the  light.  It  hates 
the  rule  of  majorities,  the  voice  of  the  people;  it  loves 
violence,  force,  and  blood. 

The  Catholic  clergy  are  on  the  side  of  slavery. 
They  find  it  is  the  dominant  power,  and  pay  court 
thereto  that  they  may  rise  by  its  help.  They  love 
slavery  itself;  it  is  an  institution  thoroughly  congenial 


RIGHTS  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA         557 

to  them,  consistent  with  the  first  principles  of  their 
Church.  Their  Jesuit  leaders  think  it  is  "  an  ulcer 
which  will  eat  up  the  Republic,"  and  so  stimulate  and 
foster  it  for  the  ruin  of  democracy,  the  deadliest  foe 
of  the  Roman  hierarchy. 

Besides,  most  of  the  Catholics  are  the  victims  of  op 
pression, —  poor,  illiterate,  oppressed,  and  often 
vicious.  Their  circumstances  have  ground  the  hu 
manity  out  of  them.  No  sect  furnishes  half  so  many 
criminals  —  victims  of  society  before  they  become  its 
foes;  no  sect  has  so  little  philanthropy;  none  is  so 
greedy  to  oppress.  All  this  is  natural.  The  lower 
you  go  down  the  coarser  and  more  cruel  do  you  find 
the  human  being. 

I  am  told  there  is  not  in  all  America  a  single  Cath 
olic  newspaper  hostile  to  slavery;  not  one  opposed  to 
tyranny  in  general;  not  one  that  takes  sides  with  the 
oppressed  in  Europe.  There  is  not  in  America  a  man 
born  and  bred  in  the  Catholic  Church,  who  is  eminent 
for  philosophy,  science,  literature,  or  art;  none  dis 
tinguished  for  philanthropy !  The  water  tastes  of  the 
fountain. 

Catholic  votes  are  in  the  market;  the  bishops  can 
dispose  of  them  —  politicians  will  make  their  bid. 
Shall  it  be  the  sacrifice  of  the  free  schools?  of  other 
noble  institutions?  In  some  States  it  seems  not  un 
likely. 

I  do  not  think  our  leading  men  see  all  this  danger. 
But  the  baneful  influence  of  the  Church  of  the  dark 
ages  begins  to  show  itself  in  the  press,  in  the  schools, 
and  still  more  in  the  politics  of  America.  Yet  I  am 
glad  the  Catholics  come  here.  Let  America  be  an 
asylum  for  the  poor  and  the  downtrodden  of  all  lands ; 
let  the  Irish  ships,  reeking  with  misery,  land  their  hu- 


358  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

man  burdens  in  our  harbors.  The  continent  is  wide 
enough  for  all.  I  rejoice  that  in  America  there  is  no 
national  form  of  religion ;  —  let  the  Jew,  the  Chinese 
Buddhist,  the  savage  Indian,  the  Mormon,  the  Prot 
estant,  and  the  Catholic  have  free  opportunity  to  be 
faithful  each  to  his  own  conscience.  Let  the  American 
Catholic  have  his  bishops,  his  archbishops,  and  his 
pope,  his  Jesuits,  his  convents,  his  nunneries,  his  celi 
bate  priesthood  of  hard  drinkers,  if  he  will.  Let  him 
oppose  the  public  education  of  the  people ;  oppose  the 
press,  the  meeting-house,  and  the  ballot-box ;  nay,  op 
pose  temperance  and  religion,  if  he  likes.  If,  with 
truth  and  justice  on  our  side,  the  few  Catholics  can 
overcome  the  many  Protestants,  we  deserve  defeat. 
We  should  be  false  to  the  first  principles  of  democratic 
theory,  if  we  did  not  grant  them  their  inalienable 
rights.  Let  there  be  no  tyranny ;  let  us  pay  the  Cath 
olics  good  for  ill ;  and  cast  out  Satan  by  the  finger 
of  God,  not  by  the  Prince  of  Devils.  This  peril  is 
easily  mastered.  The  Catholic  Church  has  still  many 
lessons  to  offer  the  Protestants. 

III.  OF  THE  DANGER  FROM  THE  IDEA  THAT  THERE 
IS  NO  HIGHER  LAW  ABOVE  THE  STATUTES  OF  MEN. 

Of  late  years,  it  has  been  industriously  taught  iYi 
America  that  there  is  no  law  of  nature  superior  to  the 
statutes  which  men  enact ;  that  politics  are  not  amen 
able  to  conscience  or  to  God.  Accordingly,  the  Amer 
ican  Congress  knows  no  check  in  legislation  but  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  the  will  of  the 
majority ;  none  in  the  Constitution  of  the  Universe  and 
the  will  of  God.  The  atheistic  idea  of  the  Jesuits, 
that  the  end  justifies  the  means,  is  made  the  first  prin 
ciple  in  American  politics.  Hence  it  has  been  repeat- 


RIGHTS  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA         359 

edly  declared  by  "  prominent  clergymen  "  that  poli 
tics  should  not  be  treated  of  in  the  pulpit;  they  are 
not  amenable  to  religion ;  Christianity  has  nothing  to 
do  with  making  or  administering  the  laws.  When 
the  Pharisees  and  Sadducees  have  silenced  the  prophet 
and  the  apostle,  it  is  not  difficult  to  make  men  believe 
that  Machiavelli  is  a  great  saint,  and  Jesuitism  the 
revealed  religion  of  politics !  Let  the  legislators  make 
what  wicked  laws  they  will  against  the  rights  of  man ; 
the  priest  of  commerce  is  to  say  nothing.  Nay,  the 
legislators  themselves  are  never  to  refer  to  justice  and 
the  eternal  right,  only  to  the  expediency  of  the  hour. 

Then  when  the  statute  is  made,  the  magistrate  is  not 
to  ask  if  it  be  just,  he  is  only  to  execute  it;  the  peo 
ple  are  to  obey  and  help  enforce  the  wicked  enactment, 
never  asking  if  it  be  right.  The  highest  virtue  in  the 
people  is  — "  unquestioning  submission  to  the  Consti 
tution  ;  "  or,  when  the  statute  violates  their  conscience, 
to  do  "  a  disagreeable  duty !  "  Thus  the  political  ac 
tion  of  the  people  is  exempted  from  the  jurisdiction 
of  God  and  His  natural  moral  law !  "  Christianity 
has  nothing  to  do  with  politics ! " 

Within  a  few  years  this  doctrine  has  been  taught 
in  a  great  variety  of  forms.  At  first  it  came  in  with 
evil  laws,  simply  as  the  occasional  support  of  a  meas 
ure ;  at  length  it  is  announced  as  a  principle.  It  has 
taken  a  deep  hold  on  the  educated  classes  of  the  com 
munity  ;  for  our  "  superior  education "  is  almost 
wholly  of  the  intellect,  and  of  only  its  humbler  pow 
ers.  It  appears  among  the  lawyers,  the  politicians, 
the  editors,  and  the  ministers.  Some  deny  the  natural 
distinction  between  right  and  wrong.  "  Justice,"  is  a 
matter  of  convention ;  things  are  not  "  true,"  but 
"  agreed  upon ;  "  not  "  right,"  only  "  assented  to." 


360  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

There  is  no  "  moral  obligation."  Government  rests 
on  a  compact,  having  its  ultimate  foundation  on  the 
caprice  of  men,  not  in  their  moral  nature.  What  are 
called  natural  rights  are  only  certain  conveniences 
agreed  upon  amongst  men ;  legal  fictions  —  their  rec 
ognition  is  their  essence,  they  are  the  creatures  of  a 
compact.  Property  has  no  foundation  in  the  nature 
of  things;  it  may  consist  of  whatever  the  legislature 
determines  —  land,  cattle,  food,  clothing ;  or  of  men, 
women,  and  children.  Dives  may  own  Lazarus  as  well 
as  the  dogs  who  serve  him  at  the  gate.  There  is  no 
political  morality,  only  political  economy. 

This  conclusion  arises  from  the  philosophy  of 
Hobbes  and  Filmer;  yes,  from  the  first  principles  of 
Locke  and  Rousseau.  It  is  one  of  the  worst  results 
of  materialism  and  practical  atheism.  It  takes  dif 
ferent  forms  in  different  nations.  In  a  monarchy  it 
has  for  its  axiom,  "  The  king  can  do  no  wrong ;  he  is 
the  norm  of  law —  Vox  Regis  vox  Dei."  In  a  de 
mocracy,  "The  majority  can  do  no  wrong;  they  are 
the  norm  of  law  —  Vox  Populi  vox  Del"  So  the 
statute  becomes  an  idol;  loyalty  takes  the  place  of 
religion,  and  despotism  becomes  enthroned  on  the  necks 
of  the  people. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  this  doctrine  should  be 
taught  from  the  pulpit  in  Catholic  countries  —  it  is 
conformable  to  the  general  conduct  of  the  Roman 
Church.  It  belongs  also  with  the  sensational  phi 
losophy  which  has  yet  done  so  much  to  break  to  pieces 
the  theology  of  the  dark  ages ;  —  and  does  not  aston 
ish  one  in  the  sects  which  build  thereon.  But  at  first 
sight  it  seems  amazing  that  American  Christians  of 
the  puritanic  stock,  with  a  philosophy  that  transcends 
sensationalism,  should  prove  false  to  the  only  principle 


RIGHTS  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA         361 

which  at  once  justifies  the  conduct  of  Jesus,  of  Lu 
ther,  and  the  Puritans  themselves.  For  certainly  if 
obedience  to  the  established  law  be  the  highest  virtue, 
then  the  patriots  and  Pilgrims  of  New  England,  the 
reformers  of  the  Church,  the  glorious  company  of  the 
apostles,  the  goodly  fellowship  of  the  prophets,  and 
the  noble  army  of  martyrs, —  nay,  Jesus  himself, — 
were  only  criminals  and  traitors.  To  appreciate  this 
denial  of  the  first  principle  of  all  religion,  it  would 
be  necessary  to  go  deep  into  the  theology  of  Chris 
tendom,  and  touch  the  fatal  error  of  all  the  three 
parties  just  referred  to.  For  that  there  is  now  no 
time. 

One  of  the  consequences  of  this  atheistic  denial  of 
the  natural  foundation  of  human  laws  is  the  prepon 
derance  of  parties.  An  opinion  before  it  becomes  a 
law,  while  it  is  yet  a  tendency,  becomes  organized  into 
a  faction,  or  party.  Members  of  the  party  feel  the 
same  loyalty  thereto  which  narrow  patriots  feel  for 
their  nation,  or  bigots  for  their  sect ;  they  give  up 
their  mind  and  conscience  to  their  party.  So  fidelity 
to  their  party,  right  or  wrong,  is  deemed  a  great  po 
litical  virtue ;  the  individual  member  is  bound  by  the 
party  opinion.  Thus  is  the  private  conscience  still 
further  debauched  by  the  second  act  in  this  atheistic 
popular  tragedy. 

Thus  both  national  and  party  politics  are  taken  out 
of  the  jurisdiction  of  morals,  declared  not  amenable 
to  conscience :  in  other  words,  are  left  to  the  control  of 
political  Jesuits.  An  American  may  read  the  natural 
result  of  such  principles  in  the  downfall  of  the  Grecian 
and  Italian  Republics,  or  wait  to  behold  it  in  his  own 
land. 


362  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

IV.  OF  THE  DANGERS  FROM  THE  INSTITUTION  OF 
SLAVERY  WHICH  RESTS  ON  THIS  FALSE  IDEA. 

Slavery  is  the  child  of  violence  and  atheism.  Brute 
material  force  is  its  father :  the  atheistic  idea  that  there 
is  no  law  of  God  above  the  passions  of  men  —  that  is 
the  mother  of  it.  I  have  lately  spoken  so  long,  so 
often,  and  with  such  publicity,  both  of  speech  and 
print,  respecting  the  extent  of  slavery  in  America,  and 
its  constant  advance  since  1788,  that  I  shall  pass  over 
all  that  theme,  and  speak  more  directly  of  the  present 
danger  it  brings  upon  our  freedom. 

There  can  be  no  national  welfare  without  national 
unity  of  action.  That  cannot  take  place  unless  there 
is  national  unity  of  idea  in  fundamentals.  Without 
this  a  nation  is  a  "  house  divided  against  itself ;  "  of 
course  it  cannot  stand.  It  is  what  mechanics  call  a 
figure  without  equilibrium ;  the  different  parts  thereof 
do  not  balance. 

Now,  in  the  American  State  there  are  two  distinct 
ideas  —  freedom  and  slavery. 

The  idea  of  freedom  first  got  a  national  expression 
seventy-eight  years  ago  next  Tuesday.  Here  it  is. 
I  put  it  in  a  philosophic  form.  There  are  five  points 
to  it. 

First.  All  men  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with 
certain  natural  rights,  amongst  which  is  the  right  to 
life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness. 

Second.  These  rights  are  inalienable;  they  can  be 
alienated  and  forfeited  only  by  the  possessor  thereof; 
the  father  cannot  alienate  them  for  the  son,  nor  the 
son  for  the  father;  nor  the  husband  for  the  wife,  nor 
the  wife  for  the  husband;  nor  the  strong  for  the 
weak,  nor  the  weak  for  the  strong;  nor  the  few  for 
the  many,  nor  the  many  for  the  few ;  and  so  on. 


RIGHTS  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA         363 

Third.  In  respect  to  these  all  men  are  equal;  the 
rich  man  has  not  more,  and  the  poor  less;  the  strong 
man  has  not  more,  and  the  weak  man  less :  —  all  are 
exactly  equal  in  these  rights,  however  unequal  in  their 
powers. 

Fourth.  It  is  the  function  of  government  to  secure 
these  natural,  inalienable,  and  equal  rights  to  every 
man. 

Fifth.  Government  derives  all  its  divine  right  from 
its  conformity  with  these  ideas,  all  its  human  sanction 
from  the  consent  of  the  governed. 

That  is  the  idea  of  freedom.  I  used  to  call  it  "  the 
American  idea ; "  it  was  when  I  was  younger  than  I 
am  to-day.  It  is  derived  from  human  nature ;  it  rests 
on  the  immutable  laws  of  God;  it  is  part  of  the  nat 
ural  religion  of  mankind.  It  demands  a  government 
after  natural  justice,  which  is  the  point  common  be 
tween  the  conscience  of  God  and  the  conscience  of 
mankind,  the  point  common  also  between  the  interests 
of  one  man  and  of  all  men. 

Now  this  government,  just  in  its  substance,  in  its 
form  must  be  democratic:  that  is  to  say,  the  govern 
ment  of  all,  by  all,  and  for  all.  You  see  what  con 
sequences  must  follow  from  such  an  idea,  and  the 
attempt  to  re-enact  the  law  of  God  into  political  insti 
tutions.  There  will  follow  the  freedom  of  the  people, 
respect  for  every  natural  right  of  all  men,  the  rights 
of  their  body,  and  of  their  spirit  —  the  rights  of  mind 
and  conscience,  heart  and  soul.  There  must  be  some 
restraint  —  as  of  children  by  their  parents,  as  of  bad 
men  by  good  men ;  but  it  will  be  restraint  for  the  joint 
good  of  all  parties  concerned;  not  restraint  for  the 
exclusive  benefit  of  the  restrainer.  The  ultimate  con 
sequence  of  this  will  be  the  material  and  spiritual  wel- 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

fare  of  all  —  riches,  comfort,  noble  manhood,  all  de 
sirable  things. 

That  is  the  idea  of  freedom.  It  appears  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence;  it  reappears  in  the  Pre 
amble  to  the  American  Constitution,  which  aims  "  to 
establish  justice,  insure  domestic  tranquillity,  provide 
for  the  common  defense,  promote  the  general  welfare, 
and  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty."  That  is  a  re 
ligious  idea ;  and  when  men  pray  for  the  "  reign  of 
justice"  and  the  "kingdom  of  heaven,"  to  come  on 
earth  politically,  I  suppose  they  mean  that  there  may 
be  a  commonwealth  where  every  man  has  his  natural 
rights  of  mind,  body,  and  estate. 

Next  is  the  idea  of  slavery.  Here  it  is.  I  put  it 
also  in  a  philosophic  form.  There  are  three  points 
which  I  make. 

First.  There  are  no  natural,  inalienable,  and  equal 
rights,  wherewith  men  are  endowed  by  their  Creator; 
no  natural,  inalienable,  and  equal  right  to  life,  liberty, 
and  the  pursuit  of  happiness. 

Second.  There  is  a  great  diversity  of  powers,  and 
in  virtue  thereof  the  strong  man  may  rule  and  op 
press,  enslave  and  ruin  the  weak,  for  his  interest  and 
against  theirs. 

Third.  There  is  no  natural  law  of  God  to  forbid  the 
strong  to  oppress  the  weak,  and  enslave  and  ruin  the 
weak. 

That  is  the  idea  of  slavery.  It  has  never  got  a  na 
tional  expression  in  America ;  it  has  never  been  laid 
down  as  a  principle  in  any  act  of  the  American  people, 
nor  in  any  single  State,  so  far  as  I  know.  All  profess 
the  opposite ;  but  it  is  involved  in  the  measures  of  both 
State  and  nation.  This  idea  is  founded  in  the  selfish 
ness  of  man;  it  is  atheistic. 


RIGHTS  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA         365 

The  idea  must  lead  to  a  corresponding  government ; 
that  will  be  unjust  in  its  substance  —  for  it  will  depend 
not  on  natural  right,  but  on  personal  force ;  not  on  the 
constitution  of  the  universe,  but  on  the  compact  of 
men.  It  is  the  abnegation  of  God  in  the  universe  and 
of  conscience  in  man.  Its  form  will  be  despotism  — 
the  government  of  all  by  a  part,  for  the  sake  of  a 
part.  It  may  be  a  single-headed  despotism,  or  a  des 
potism  of  many  heads;  but  whether  a  Cyclops  or  a 
Hydra,  it  is  alike  "  the  abomination  which  maketh 
desolate."  Its  ultimate  consequence  is  plain  to  fore 
see  —  poverty  to  a  nation,  misery,  ruin. 

At  first  slavery  came  as  a  measure;  nothing  was 
said  about  it  as  a  principle.  But  in  a  country  full  of 
schoolmasters,  legislatures,  newspapers,  talking  men  — 
a  measure  without  a  principle  to  bear  it  up  is  like  a 
single  twig  of  willow  cast  out  on  a  wooden  floor;  there 
is  nothing  for  it  to  grow  by;  it  will  die.  So  of  late 
the  principle  has  been  boldly  avowed.  Mr.  Calhoun 
denied  the  self-evident  truths  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence;  denied  the  natural,  inalienable,  and 
equal  rights  of  man.  Many  since  have  done  the  same  — 
political,  literary,  and  mercantile  men,  and,  of  course, 
ecclesiastical  men ;  there  are  enough  of  them  always  in 
the  market.  All  parts  of  the  idea  of  slavery  have  been 
affirmed  by  prominent  men  at  the  North  and  the  South. 
It  has  been  acted  on  in  the  formation  of  the  constitu 
tion  of  every  slave  State,  and  in  the  passage  of  many 
of  its  laws.  It  lies  at  the  basis  of  a  great  deal  of  na 
tional  legislation. 

Hear  the  opinions  of  some  of  our  Southern  patriots : 
"  Slavery  is  coeval  with  society : "  "  It  was  com 
mended  by  God's  chosen  theocracy,  and  sanctioned  by 
His  apostles  in  the  Christian  Church."  All  ancient 


366  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

literature  is  "  the  literature  of  slaveholders ;  "  "  Rome 
and  Greece  owed  their  literary  and  national  greatness 
exclusively  to  the  institution  of  slavery ;  "  "  Slavery 
is  as  necessary  for  the  welfare  of  the  Southern  States 
as  sunshine  is  for  the  flowers  of  the  prairies ;  "  "A 
noble  and  necessary  institution  of  God's  creation."  * 
u  Nature  is  the  mother  and  protector  of  slavery ; " 
"  Domestic  slavery  is  not  only  natural  and  necessary, 
but  a  great  blessing."  "  Free  society  is  a  sad  and 
signal  failure ;  "  "  It  does  well  enough  in  a  new  coun 
try."  "  Free  society  has  become  diseased  by  abolish 
ing  slavery.  It  can  only  be  restored  to  pristine  health, 
happiness,  and  prosperity  by  re-instituting  slavery." 
"  Slavery  may  be  administered  under  a  new  name." 
"  Free  society  is  a  monstrosity.  Like  all  monsters  it 
will  be  short-lived.  We  dare  and  do  vindicate  slavery 
in  the  abstract."  The  negro  "  needs  a  master  to  pro 
tect  and  govern  him ;  so  do  the  ignorant  poor  in  old 
countries."  f 

"  There  is  no  moral  wrong  in  slavery ;  "  it  "  is  the 
normal  condition  of  human  society."  "  The  benefits 
and  advantages  which  so  far  have  resulted  from  this 
institution  we  take  as  lights  to  guide  us  to  the  brighter 
truths  of  its  future  history."  "  We  belong  to  that 
society  of  which  slavery  is  the  distinguishing  element, 
and  we  are  not  ashamed  of  it.  We  find  it  marked  by 
every  evidence  of  Divine  approval."  J 

These  two  ideas  are  now  fairly  on  foot.  They  are 
hostile ;  they  are  both  mutually  invasive  and  destruc 
tive.  They  are  in  exact  opposition  to  each  other,  and 
the  nation  which  embodies  these  two  is  not  a  figure 

*  Richmond  Examiner  for  June  30,  1854. 
f  Richmond  Examiner,  June  23,  1854. 
^Charleston  Standard  (S.C.),  June  21,  1854. 


RIGHTS  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA         367 

of  equilibrium.  As  both  are  active  forces  in  the  minds 
of  men,  and  as  each  idea  tends  to  become  a  fact  —  a 
universal  and  exclusive  fact  —  as  men  with  these  ideas 
organize  into  parties  as  a  means  to  make  their  idea 
into  a  fact,  it  follows  that  there  must  not  only  be 
strife  amongst  philosophical  men  about  these  antag 
onistic  principles  and  ideas,  but  a  strife  of  practical 
men  about  corresponding  facts  and  measures.  So  the 
quarrel,  if  not  otherwise  ended,  will  pass  from  words 
to  what  seems  more  serious ;  and  one  will  overcome  the 
other. 

So  long  as  these  two  ideas  exist  in  the  nation  as 
two  political  forces  there  is  no  national  unity  of  idea, 
of  course,  no  unity  of  action.  For  there  is  no  center 
of  gravity  common  to  freedom  and  slavery.  They 
will  not  compose  an  equilibrious  figure.  You  may  cry, 
"  Peace !  peace ! "  but  so  long  as  these  two  antagonistic 
ideas  remain,  each  seeking  to  organize  itself  and  get 
exclusive  power,  there  is  no  peace ;  there  can  be  none. 

The  question  before  the  nation  to-day  is,  Which 
shall  prevail  —  the  idea  and  fact  of  freedom,  or  the 
idea  and  the  fact  of  slavery;  freedom,  exclusive  and 
universal,  or  slavery,  exclusive  and  universal?  The 
question  is  not  merely,  Shall  the  African  be  bond  or 
free?  but,  Shall  America  be  a  democracy  or  a  despo 
tism?  For  nothing  is  so  remorseless  as  an  idea,  and  no 
logic  is  so  strong  as  the  historical  development  of  a  na 
tional  idea  by  millions  of  men.  A  measure  is  nothing 
without  its  principle.  The  idea  which  allows  slavery  in 
South  Carolina  will  establish  it  also  in  New  England. 
The  bondage  of  a  black  man  in  Alexandria  imperils 
every  white  woman's  daughter  in  Boston.  You  can 
not  escape  the  consequences  of  a  first  principle  more 
than  you  can  "  take  the  leap  of  Niagara  and  stop 


368  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

when  half-way  down."  The  principle  which  recog 
nises  slavery  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
would  make  all  America  a  despotism ;  while  the  princi 
ple  which  made  John  Quincy  Adams  a  free  man  would 
extirpate  slavery  from  Louisiana  and  Texas.  It  is 
plain  America  cannot  long  hold  these  two  contradic 
tions  in  the  national  consciousness.  Equilibrium  must 
come. 

Now  there  are  three  possible  ways  of  settling  the 
quarrel  between  these  two  ideas ;  only  three.  The  cate 
gories  are  exhaustive. 

This  is  the  first :  The  discord  may  rend  the  nation 
asunder  and  the  two  elements  separate  and  become  dis 
tinct  nations  —  a  despotism  with  the  idea  of  slavery, 
a  democracy  with  the  idea  of  freedom.  Then  each 
will  be  an  equilibrious  figure.  The  Anglo-Saxon  des 
potism  may  go  to  ruin  on  its  own  account,  while  the 
Anglo-Saxon  democracy  marches  on  to  national  wel 
fare.  That  is  the  first  hypothesis. 

Or,  second:  The  idea  of  freedom  may  destroy  slav 
ery,  with  all  its  accidents  —  attendant  and  consequent. 
Then  the  nation  may  have  unity  of  idea,  and  so  a 
unity  of  action,  and  become  a  harmonious  whole,  a 
unit  of  freedom,  a  great  industrial  democracy,  re- 
enacting  the  laws  of  God,  and  pursuing  its  way,  con 
tinually  attaining  greater  degrees  of  freedom  and  pros 
perity.  That  is  the  second  hypothesis. 

Here  is  the  third:  The  idea  of  slavery  may  destroy 
freedom,  with  all  its  accidents  —  attendant  and  conse 
quent.  Then  the  nation  will  become  an  integer ;  only 
it  will  be  a  unit  of  despotism.  This  involves,  of 
course,  the  destructive  revolution  of  all  our  liberal  in 
stitutions,  State  as  well  as  national.  Democracy  must 
go  down ;  the  free  press  go  down ;  the  free  church  go 


RIGHTS  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA         369 

down ;  the  free  school  go  down.  There  must  be  an  in 
dustrial  despotism,  which  will  soon  become  a  military 
despotism.  Popular  legislation  must  end;  the  Fed 
eral  Congress  will  be  a  club  of  officials,  like  Nero's  Sen 
ate,  which  voted  his  horse  first  consul.  The  State  leg 
islature  will  be  a  knot  of  commissioners,  tide-waiters, 
postmasters,  district  attorneys,  deputy-marshals.  The 
town-meeting  will  be  a  gang  of  government  officers, 
like  the  "  Marshal's  Guard,"  revolvers  in  their  pock 
ets,  soldiers  at  their  back.  The  habeas  corpus  will 
be  at  an  end;  trial  by  jury  never  heard  of,  and  open 
courts  as  common  in  America  as  in  Spain  or  Rome. 
Commissioners  Curtis,  Loring,  and  Kane  will  not  be 
exceptional  men;  there  will  be  no  other  "  judges;  "  all 
courts,  courts  of  the  kidnapper ;  all  process  summary ; 
all  cases  decided  by  the  will  of  the  government ;  arbi 
trary  force  the  only  rule.  The  constable  will  disap 
pear,  the  soldier  come  forth.  All  newspapers  will  be 
like  the  "  Satanic  press  "  of  Boston  and  New  York, 
like  the  journal  of  St.  Petersburg,  or  the  Diario  Ro 
mano,  which  tell  lies  when  the  ruler  commands,  or  tell 
truth  when  he  insists  upon  it.  Then  the  wicked  will 
walk  on  every  side,  for  the  vilest  of  men  will  be  exalted, 
and  America,  become  the  mock  and  scorn  and  hissing 
of  the  nations,  will  go  down  to  worse  shame  than  was 
ever  heaped  upon  Sodom ;  for  with  her  lust  for  wealth, 
land,  and  power,  she  will  also  have  committed  the 
crime  against  nature.  Then  America  will  be  another 
Italy,  Greece,  Asia  Minor,  yea,  like  Gomorrah  —  for 
the  Dead  Sea  will  have  settled  down  upon  us  with  noth 
ing  living  in  its  breast,  and  the  rulers  will  proclaim 
peace  where  they  have  made  solitude. 

Which  of  these  three  hypotheses  shall  we  take? 

I.  Will  there  be  a  separation  of  the  two  elements, 
XIII— 24 


370  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

and  a  formation  of  two  distinct  States, —  freedom  with 
democracy,  and  slavery  with  a  tendency  to  despotism? 
That  may  save  one  half  the  nation,  and  leave  the  other 
to  voluntary  ruin.  Certainly  it  is  better  to  enter  into 
life  halt  or  maimed,  rather  than  having  two  hands  and 
two  feet  to  be  cast  into  everlasting  fire. 

Now,  I  do  not  suppose  it  is  possible  for  the  Anglo- 
Saxons  of  America  to  remain  as  one  nation  for  a  great 
many  years.  Suppose  we  become  harmonious  and 
prosper  abundantly :  when  there  are  a  hundred  millions 
on  the  Atlantic  slope,  another  hundred  millions  in  the 
Mississippi  Valley,  a  third  hundred  millions  on  the 
Pacific  slope,  and  a  fourth  hundred  millions  in  South 
America, —  it  is  not  likely  that  all  these  will  hold  to 
gether.  We  shall  be  too  wide  spread.  And,  besides, 
it  is  not  according  to  the  disposition  of  the  Teutonic 
family  to  aggregate  into  one  great  State  any  very 
large  body  of  men;  division,  not  conglomeration,  is 
after  the  ethnologic  instinct  and  the  historical  custom 
of  the  Teutonic  family,  and  especially  of  its  Anglo- 
Saxon  tribe.  We  do  not  like  centralization  of  power, 
but  have  such  strong  individuality  that  we  prefer  local 
self-government;  we  are  social,  not  gregarious  like  the 
Celtic  family.  I,  therefore,  do  not  look  on  the  union 
of  the  States  as  a  thing  that  is  likely  to  last  a  great 
length  of  time,  under  any  circumstances.  I  doubt  if 
any  part  of  the  nation  will  desire  it  a  hundred  years 
hence. 

True,  there  are  causes  which  tend  to  keep  us  united : 
community  of  ethnologic  origin  —  fifteen  millions  are 
Anglo-Saxon ;  —  unity  of  language,  literature,  re 
ligion  ;  historic  and  legal  traditions,  and  commercial 
interest.  But  all  these  may  easily  be  overcome,  and 
doubtless  will  be.  So  a  dissolution  of  the  great  Anglo- 


RIGHTS  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA         371 

Saxon  State  seems  likely  to  take  place,  when  the 
territory  is  spread  so  wide  that  there  is  a  practical  in 
convenience  in  balancing  the  nation  on  a  single  govern 
mental  point;  when  the  numbers  are  so  great  that  we 
require  many  centers  of  legislative  and  administrative 
action  in  order  to  secure  individual  freedom  of  the 
parts,  as  well  as  national  unity  of  the  whole ;  or  when 
the  Federal  Government  shall  become  so  corrupt  that 
the  trunk  will  not  sustain  the  limbs.  Then  the 
branches  which  make  up  this  great  American  banyan- 
tree  will  separate  from  the  rotten  primeval  trunk,  draw 
their  support  from  their  own  local  roots,  and  spread 
into  great  and  independent  trees.  All  this  may  take 
place  without  fighting.  Massachusetts  and  Maine 
were  once  a  single  State ;  now  friendly  sisters. 

But  I  do  not  think  this  "  dissolution  of  the  Union  " 
will  take  place  immediately,  or  very  soon.  For  Amer 
ica  is  not  now  ruled  —  as  it  is  commonly  thought  — 
either  by  the  mass  of  men  who  follow  their  national, 
ethnological,  and  human  instincts;  or  by  a  few  far- 
sighted  men  of  genius  for  politics,  who  consciously 
obey  the  law  of  God  made  clear  in  their  own  masterly 
mind  and  conscience,  and  make  statutes  in  advance  of 
the  calculation  or  even  the  instincts  of  the  people,  and 
so  manage  the  Ship  of  State  that  every  occasional  tack 
is  on  a  great  circle  of  the  universe,  a  right  line  of 
justice,  and  therefore  the  shortest  way  to  welfare;  but 
by  two  very  different  classes  of  men ;  —  by  mercantile 
men,  who  covet  money,  actual  or  expectant  capitalists ; 
and  by  political  men,  who  want  power,  actual  or  ex 
pectant  office-holders.  These  appear  diverse;  but 
there  is  a  strong  unanimity  between  the  two ;  —  for  the 
mercantile  men  want  money  as  a  means  of  power,  and 
the  political  men  power  as  a  means  of  money.  There 


372  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

are  noble  men  in  both  classes,  exceptional,  not  instan- 
tial,  men  with  great  riches  even,  and  great  office.  But 
as  a  class,  these  men  are  not  above  the  average  moral 
ity  of  the  people,  often  below  it :  they  have  no  deep, 
religious  faith,  which  leads  them  to  trust  the  higher 
law  of  God.  They  do  not  look  for  principles  that 
are  right,  conformable  to  the  constitution  of  the  uni 
verse,  and  so  creative  of  the  nation's  permanent  wel 
fare;  but  only  for  expedient  measures,  productive  to 
themselves  of  selfish  money  or  selfish  power.  In  general, 
they  have  the  character  of  adventurers,  the  aims  of  ad 
venturers,  the  morals  of  adventurers ;  they  begin  poor, 
and  of  course  obscure,  and  are  then  "  democratic," 
and  hurrah  for  the  people :  "  Down  with  the  powerful 
and  the  rich  "  is  the  private  maxim  of  their  heart.  If 
they  are  successful,  and  become  rich,  famous,  attain 
ing  high  office,  they  commonly  despise  the  people : 
u  Down  with  the  people ! "  is  the  axiom  of  their  heart 
—  only  they  dare  not  say  it ;  for  there  are  so  many 
others  with  the  same  selfishness,  who  have  not  yet 
achieved  their  end,  and  raise  the  opposite  cry.  The 
line  of  the  nation's  course  is  a  resultant  of  the  com 
pound  selfishness  of  these  two  classes. 

From  these  two,  with  their  mercantile  and  political 
selfishness,  we  are  to  expect  no  comprehensive  morality 
which  will  secure  the  rights  of  mankind ;  no  compre 
hensive  policy,  which  will  secure  expedient  measures 
for  a  long  time.  Both  will  unite  in  what  serves  their 
apparent  interest,  brings  money  to  the  trader,  power 
to  the  politician, —  whatever  be  the  consequence  to  the 
country. 

As  things  now  are,  the  Union  favors  the  schemes  of 
both  of  these  classes  of  men;  thereby  the  politician 
gets  power,  the  trader  makes  money. 


RIGHTS  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA         373 

If  the  Union  were  to  be  dissolved  and  a  great  North 
ern  commonwealth  were  to  be  organized,  with  the  idea 
of  freedom,  three  quarters  of  the  politicians,  Federal 
and  State,  would  pass  into  contempt  and  oblivion ;  all 
that  class  of  Northern  demagogues  who  scoff  at  God's 
law,  such  as  filled  the  offices  of  the  late  Whig  admin 
istration  in  its  day  of  power,  or  as  fill  the  offices  of  the 
Democratic  administration  to-day  —  they  would  drop 
down  so  deep  that  no  plummet  would  ever  reach  them ; 
you  would  never  hear  of  them  again. 

Gratitude  is  not  a  very  common  virtue;  but  grati 
tude  to  the  hand  of  slavery,  which  feeds  these  crea 
tures,  is  their  sole  and  single  moral  excellence;  they 
have  that  form  of  gratitude.  When  the  hand  of  slav 
ery  is  cut  off,  that  class  of  men  will  perish  just  as 
caterpillars  die  when,  some  day  in  May,  the  farmer 
cuts  off  from  the  old  tree  a  great  branch  to  graft  in  a 
better  fruit.  The  caterpillars  will  not  vote  for  the 
grafting.  That  class  of  men  will  go  for  the  Union 
while  it  serves  them. 

Look  at  the  other  class.  Property  is  safe  in  Amer 
ica:  and  why?  Because  we  have  aimed  to  establish 
a  government  on  natural  rights,  and  property  is  a 
natural  right ;  say  oligarchic  Blackstone  and  socialistic 
Proudhon  what  they  may,  property  is  not  the  mere 
creature  of  compact,  or  the  child  of  robbery;  it  is 
founded  in  the  nature  of  man.  It  has  a  very  great 
and  important  function  to  perform.  Nowhere  in  the 
world  is  it  so  much  respected  as  here. 

But  there  is  one  kind  of  property  which  is  not  safe 
just  now:  —  property  in  men.  It  is  the  only  kind 
of  property  which  is  purely  the  creature  of  violence 
and  law ;  it  has  no  root  in  itself. 

Now,  the  Union  protects  that  "  property."     There 


374  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

are  three  hundred  thousand  slaveholders,  owning  thir 
teen  hundred  millions  of  dollars  invested  in  men.  Their 
wealth  depends  on  the  Union ;  destroy  that,  and  their 
unnatural  property  will  take  to  itself  legs  and  run  off, 
seeking  liberty  by  flight,  or  else  stay  at  home  and,  like 
an  Anglo-Saxon,  take  to  itself  firebrands  and  swords, 
and  burn  down  the  master's  house  and  cut  the  master's 
throat.  So  the  slaveholder  wants  the  Union ;  he 
makes  money  by  it.  Slavery  is  unprofitable  to  the 
nation.  No  three  millions  earn  so  little  as  the  three 
million  slaves.  It  is  costly  to  every  State.  But  it  en 
riches  the  owner  of  the  slaves.  The  South  is  agri 
cultural  ;  that  is  all.  She  raises  cotton,  sugar,  and  corn  ; 
she  has  no  commerce,  no  manufactures,  no  mining. 
The  North  has  mills,  ships,  mines,  manufactures ;  buys 
and  sells  for  the  South,  and  makes  money  by  what  im 
poverishes  the  South.  So-  all  the  great  commercial 
centers  of  the  North  are  in  favor  of  Union,  in  favor 
of  slavery.  The  instinct  of  American  trade  just  now 
is  hostile  to  American  freedom.  The  money  power 
and  the  slave  power  go  hand  in  hand.  Of  course  such 
editors  and  ministers  as  are  only  the  tools  of  the 
money  power,  or  the  slave  power,  will  be  fond  of 
"  Union  at  all  hazards."  They  will  sell  their  mothers 
to  keep  it.  Now  these  are  the  controlling  classes  of 
men ;  these  ministers  and  editors  are  the  mouthpieces 
of  these  controlling  classes  of  men;  and  as  these 
classes  make  money  and  power  out  of  the  Union,  for 
the  present  I  think  the  Union  will  hold  together.  Yet 
I  know  very  well  that  there  are  causes  now  at  work 
which  embitter  the  minds  of  men,  and  which,  if  much 
enforced,  will  so  exasperate  the  North  that  we  shall 
rend  the  Union  asunder  at  a  blow.  That  I  think  not 
likely  to  take  place,  for  the  South  sees  the  peril  and 
its  own  ruin. 


RIGHTS  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA         375 

II.  The  next  hypothesis  is,  freedom  may  triumph 
over  slavery.     That  was  the  expectation  once,  at  the 
time  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence;  nay,  at  the 
formation  of  the  Constitution.     But  only  two  national 
steps   have  been  taken   against  slavery   since  then  — 
one  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  the  other  the  abolition  of 
the  African  slave-trade;  really  that  was  done  in  1788, 
formally  twenty  years  after.     In  the  individual  States, 
the  white  man's  freedom  enlarges  every  year;  but  the 
Federal  Government  becomes  more  and  more  addicted 
to  slavery.     This  hypothesis  does  not  seem  very  likely 
to  be  adopted. 

III.  Shall  slavery  destroy  freedom?     It  looks  very 
much  like  it.     Here  are  nine  great  steps,  openly  taken 
since   '87,   in   favor   of  slavery.     First,   America   put 
slavery    into    the    Constitution.     Second,    out    of    old 
soil  she  made  four  new  slave  States.     Third,  America, 
in  1793,  adopted  slavery  as  a  Federal  institution,  and 
guaranteed  her  protection  for  that  kind  of  property 
as  for  no  other.     Fourth,  America  bought  the  Louisi 
ana  territory  in  1803,  and  put  slavery  into  it.     Fifth, 
she   thence   made   Louisiana,   Missouri,   and  then   Ar 
kansas  slave  States.      Sixth,  she  made  slavery  perpetual 
in  Florida.     Seventh,  she  annexed  Texas.     Eighth,  she 
fought  the  Mexican  War,  and  plundered  a  feeble  sister 
republic  of  California,  Utah,  and  New  Mexico,  to  get 
more  slave  soil.     Ninth,  America  gave  ten  millions  of 
money  to  Texas  to  support  slavery,  passed  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill,  and  has  since  kidnapped  men  in  New  Eng 
land,    New   York,    New    Jersey,    Pennsylvania,    Ohio, 
Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Illinois,  Indiana,  in  all  the  East, 
in  all  the  West,  in  all  the  Middle  States.     All  the  great 
cities  have  kidnapped  their  own  citizens.     Professional 
slave-hunters  are  members  of  New  England  churches ; 


376  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

kidnappers  sit  down  at  the  Lord's  table  in  the  city  of 
Cotton,  Chauncy,  and  Mayhew.  In  this  very  year,  be 
fore  it  is  half  through,  America  has  taken  two  more 
steps  for  the  destruction  of  freedom.  The  repeal  of 
the  Missouri  Compromise  and  the  enslavement  of  Ne 
braska:  that  is  the  tenth  step.  Here  is  the  eleventh: 
The  Mexican  treaty,  giving  away  ten  millions  of  dol 
lars  and  buying  a  little  strip  of  worthless  land,  solely 
that  it  may  serve  the  cause  of  slavery. 

Here  are  eleven  great  steps  openly  taken  towards 
the  ruin  of  liberty  in  America.  Are  these  the  worst? 
Very  far  from  it!  Yet  more  dangerous  things  have 
been  done  in  secret. 

I.  Slavery  has  corrupted  the  mercantile  class.     Al 
most  all  the  leading  merchants  of  the  North  are  pro- 
slavery  men.     They  hate  freedom,  hate  your  freedom 
and    mine!     This   is    the    only    Christian    country    in 
which  commerce  is  hostile  to  freedom. 

II.  See  the  corruption  of  the  political  class.     There 
are  forty  thousand  officers  of  the  Federal  Government. 
Look  at  them  in  Boston  —  their  character  is  as  well 
known  as  this  hall.     Read  their  journals  in  this  city  - 
do  you  catch  a  whisper  of  freedom  in  them?     Slavery 
has  sought  its  menial  servants  —  men  basely  born  and 
basely  bred:  it  has  corrupted  them  still  further,  and 
put  them  in  office.     America,  like  Russia,  is  the  country 
for  mean  men  to  thrive  in.     Give  him  time  and  mire 
enough,  a  worm  can  crawl  as  high  as  an  eagle  flies. 
State  rights  are  sacrificed  at  the  North ;  centralization 
goes  on  with  rapid  strides ;  State  laws  are  trodden  under 
foot.*     The   Northern   President   is   all   for   slavery. 

*  While  this  volume  is  passing  through  the  press,  another 
example  of  this  same  corruption  appears.  The  Senate  passes 
a  bill  to  protect  United  States  officers  engaged  in  kidnapping 


RIGHTS  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA         377 

The  Northern  members  of  the  Cabinet  are  for  slavery ; 
in  the  Senate,  fourteen  Northern  Democrats  were  for 
the  enslavement  of  Nebraska;  in  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives,  forty-four  Northern  Democrats  voted  for 
the  bill, —  fourteen  in  the  Senate,  forty-four  in  the 
House,  fifty-eight  Northern  men  voted  against  the  con 
science  of  the  North  and  the  law  of  God.  Only  eight 
men  out  of  all  the  South  could  be  found  friendly  to 
justice  and  false  to  their  own  local  idea  of  injustice. 
The  present  administration,  with  its  supple  tools  of 
tyranny,  came  into  office  while  the  cry  of  "  No  higher 
law  "  was  echoing  through  the  land ! 

III.  Slavery  has  debauched  the  press.     How  many 
leading  journals  of  commerce  and  politics  in  the  great 
cities  do  you  know  that  are  friendly  to  freedom  and 
opposed  to  slavery?     Out  of  the  five  large  daily  com 
mercial  papers  in  Boston,  Whig  or  Democratic,  I  know 
of  only  one  that  has  spoken  a  word  for  freedom  this 
great  while.     The  American  newspapers  are  poor  de 
fenders  of  American  liberty.     Listen  to  one  of  them, 
speaking   of  the   last  kidnapping   in   Boston :     "  We 
shall  need  to  employ  the  same  measures  of  coercion  as 
are  necessary  in  monarchical  countries."     There  is  al 
ways   some  one   ready   to   do   the  basest  deeds.     Yet 
there  are  some  noble  journals  —  political  and  commer 
cial  ;  such  as  the  New  York  Tribune  and  Evening  Post. 

IV.  Then  our  colleges  and  schools  are  corrupted  by 
slavery.     I  do  not  know  of  five  colleges  in  all  the  North 
which  publicly  appear  on  the  side  of  freedom.     What 
the  hearts  of  the  presidents  and  professors  are,  God 
knows,    not    I.     The    great    crime    against   humanity, 
practical   atheism,  found  ready  support  in  Northern 

citizens  of  the  free  States,  from  the  justice  of  the  people.     Such 
kidnappers  are  to  be  tried  in  the  Kidnappers'  Court. 


378  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

colleges,  in  1850  and  1851.  Once,  the  common  read 
ing  books  of  our  schools  were  full  of  noble  words. 
Read  the  school-books  now  made  by  Yankee  peddlers  of 
literature,  and  what  liberal  ideas  do  you  find  there? 
They  are  meant  for  the  Southern  market.  Slavery 
must  not  be  offended ! 

V.  Slavery  has  corrupted  the  churches !  There  are 
twenty-eight  thousand  Protestant  clergymen  in  the 
United  States.  There  are  noble  hearts,  true  and  just 
men  among  them,  who  have  fearlessly  borne  witness  to 
the  truth.  I  need  not  mention  their  names.  Alas ! 
they  are  not  very  numerous;  I  should  not  have  to  go 
over  my  fingers  many  times  to  count  them  all.  I  honor 
these  exceptional  men.  Some  of  them  are  old,  far  older 
than  I  am ;  older  than  my  father  need  have  been ;  some 
of  them  are  far  younger  than  I ;  nay,  some  of  them 
younger  than  my  children  might  be :  and  I  honor  these 
men  for  the  fearless  testimony  which  they  have  borne 
-  the  old,  the  middle-aged,  and  the  young.  But  they 
are  very  exceptional  men.  Is  there  a  minister  in  the 
South  who  preaches  against  slavery?  How  few  in  all 
the  North! 

Look  and  see  the  condition  of  the  Sunday  Schools. 
In  1853,  the  Episcopal  Methodists  had  9,438  Sunday 
Schools;  102,732  Sunday  School  teachers;  525,008 
scholars.  There  is  not  an  anti-slavery  Sunday  School 
in  the  compass  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 
Last  year,  in  New  York,  they  issued,  on  an  average, 
two  thousand  bound  volumes  every  day  in  the  year, 
not  a  line  against  slavery  in  them.  They  printed  also 
two  thousand  pamphlets  every  day ;  there  is  not  a  line 
in  them  all  against  slavery ;  they  printed  more  than 
two  hundred  and  forty  million  pages  of  Sunday  School 
books,  not  a  line  against  slavery  in  them  all;  not  a 


RIGHTS  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA         379 

line  showing  that  it  is  wicked  to  buy  and  sell  a  man, 
for  whom,  according  to  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  Christ  died! 

The  Orthodox  Sunday  School  Union  spent  last  year 
$248,201 ;  not  a  cent  against  slavery,  our  great  na 
tional  sin.  They  print  books  by  the  million.  Only  one 
of  them  contains  a  word  against  slavery ;  that  is  Cow- 
per's  Task,  which  contains  these  words  —  my  mother 
taught  them  to  me  when  I  was  a  little  boy,  and  sat  in 
her  lap :  — 

"  I  would  not  have  a  slave  to  till  my  ground, 
To  carry  me,  to  fan  me  when  I  sleep, 
And  tremble  when  I  wake,  for  all  the  wealth 
That  sinews,  bought  and  sold,  have  ever  earned ! " 

You  all  know  it:  if  you  do  not,  you  had  better  learn 
and  teach  it  to  your  children.  That  is  the  only  anti- 
slavery  work  they  print.  Once  they  published  a  book 
written  by  Mr.  Gallaudet,  which  related  the  story,  I 
think,  of  the  selling  of  Joseph :  at  any  rate,  it  showed 
that  Egyptian  slavery  was  wrong.  A  little  girl  in  a 
Sunday  School  in  one  of  the  Southern  States  one  day 
said  to  her  teacher,  "  If  it  was  wrong  to  make  Joseph 
a  slave,  why  is  it  not  wrong  to  make  Dinah,  and  Sambo, 
and  Chloe  slaves  ?  "  The  Sunday  School  teacher  and 
the  church  took  alarm,  and  complained  of  the  Sunday 
School  Union :  "  You  are  poisoning  the  South  with 
your  religion,  telling  the  children  that  slavery  is 
wicked."  It  was  a  serious  thing,  "  dissolution  of  the 
Union,"  "  levying  war,"  or  at  least,  "  misdemeanor," 
for  aught  I  know,  "  obstructing  an  officer  of  the  United 
States."  What  do  you  think  the  Sunday  School  Union 
did?  It  suppressed  the  book !  It  printed  one  Sunday 
School  book  which  had  a  line  against  Egyptian  slavery 


380  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

and  then  suppressed  it!  and  it  cannot  be  had  to-day. 
Amid  all  their  million  books,  there  is  not  a  line  against 
slavery,  save  what  Cowper  sung.  There  are  five  million 
Sunday  School  scholars  in  the  United  States,  and  there 
is  not  a  Sunday  School  manual  which  has  got  a  word 
against  slavery  in  it. 

You  all  know  the  American  Tract  Society.  Last 
year  the  American  Tract  Society  in  Boston  spent  $79,- 
983.46 ;  it  visited  more  than  fourteen  thousand  fam 
ilies ;  it  distributed  3,334,920  tracts  —  not  a  word 
against  slavery  in  them  all.  The  American  Tract  So 
ciety  in  New  York  last  year  visited  568,000  families, 
containing  three  million  persons ;  it  spent  for  home 
purposes  $406,707;  for  foreign  purposes  $422,294; 
it  distributed  tracts  in  English,  French,  German, 
Dutch,  Danish,  Swedish,  Norwegian,  Italian,  Hungar 
ian,  and  Welsh  —  and  it  did  not  print  one  single  line, 
nor  whisper  a  single  word  against  this  great  national 
sin  of  slavery !  Nay,  worse :  —  if  it  finds  English 
books  which  suit  its  general  purpose,  but  containing 
matter  adverse  to  slavery,  it  strikes  out  all  the  anti- 
slavery  matter,  then  prints  and  circulates  the  book. 
Is  the  Tract  Society  also  managed  by  Jesuits  from 
the  Roman  Church? 

At  this  day,  600,000  slaves  are  directly  and  per 
sonally  owned  by  men  who  are  called  "  professing 
Christians,"  "  members  in  good  fellowship "  of  the 
churches  of  this  land;  80,000  owned  by  Presbyterians, 
225,000  by  Baptists,  250,000  owned  by  Methodists: 
—  600,000  slaves  in  this  land  owned  by  men  who  pro 
fess  themselves  Christians,  and  in  churches  sit  down  to 
take  the  Lord's  Supper,  in  the  name  of  Christ  and 
God !  There  are  ministers  who  own  their  fellow-men  — 
"  bought  with  a  price." 


RIGHTS  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA         381 

Does  not  this  look  as  if  slavery  were  to  triumph  over 
freedom  ? 

VI.  Slavery  corrupts  the  judicial  class.  In  Amer 
ica,  especially  in  New  England,  no  class  of  men  has 
been  so  much  respected  as  the  judges;  and  for  this 
reason :  we  have  had  wise,  learned,  excellent  men  for 
our  judges;  men  who  reverenced  the  higher  law  of 
God,  and  sought  by  human  statutes  to  execute  justice. 
You  all  know  their  venerable  names,  and  how  rever 
entially  we  have  looked  up  to  them.  Many  of  them  are 
dead ;  some  are  still  living,  and  their  hoary  hairs  are 
a  crown  of  glory  on  a  judicial  life,  without  judicial 
blot.  But  of  late  slavery  has  put  a  different  class  of 
men  on  the  benches  of  the  Federal  courts  —  mere  tools 
of  the  government ;  creatures  which  get  their  appoint 
ment  as  pay  for  past  political  service,  and  as  pay  in 
advance  for  iniquity  not  yet  accomplished.  You  see 
the  consequences.  Note  the  zeal  of  the  Federal  judges 
to  execute  iniquity  by  statute  and  destroy  liberty.  See 
how  ready  they  are  to  support  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill, 
which  tramples  on  the  spirit  of  the  Constitution,  and 
its  letter  too;  which  outrages  justice  and  violates  the 
most  sacred  principles  and  precepts  of  Christianity. 
Not  a  United  States  judge,  circuit  or  district,  has 
uttered  one  word  against  that  "  bill  of  abominations." 
Nay,  how  greedy  they  are  to  get  victims  under  it! 
No  wolf  loves  better  to  rend  a  lamb  into  fragments 
than  these  judges  to  kidnap  a  fugitive  slave,  and  pun 
ish  any  man  who  dares  to  speak  against  it.  You  know 
what  has  happened  in  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  courts.  You 
remember  the  "  miraculous  "  rescue  of  Shadrach ;  the 
peaceable  snatching  of  a  man  from  the  hands  of  a 
cowardly  kidnapper  was  "  high  treason ; "  it  was 
"  levying  war."  You  remember  the  "  trial "  of  the 


382  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

rescuers!  Judge  Sprague's  charge  to  the  grand  jury, 
that,  if  they  thought  the  question  was  which  they  ought 
to  obey,  the  law  of  man  or  the  law  of  God,  then  they 
must  "  obey  both ! "  serve  God  and  mammon,  Christ 
and  the  devil,  in  the  same  act!  You  remember  the 
"  trial,"  the  "  ruling  "  of  the  Bench,  the  swearing  on 
the  stand,  the  witness  coming  back  to  alter  and  "  en 
large  his  testimony  "  and  have  another  gird  at  the 
prisoner!  You  have  not  forgotten  the  trials  before 
Judge  Kane  at  Philadelphia,  and  Judge  Grier  at 
Christiana  and  Wilkesbarre. 

These  are  natural  results  of  causes  well  known.  You 
cannot  escape  a  principle.  Enslave  a  negro,  will  you? 
-  you  doom  to  bondage  your  own  sons  and  daughters, 
by  your  own  act. 

Do  you  forget  the  Union  meeting  in  Faneuil  Hall, 
November  26th,  1850,  the  Tuesday  before  Thanksgiv 
ing  Day?  It  was  called  to  indorse  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Bill  —  a  meeting  to  promote  the  stealing  of  men  in 
Boston,  of  your  fellow-worshipers  and  my  parishioners. 
Do  you  remember  the  Democratic  Herods  and  Whig 
Pilates,  who  were  made  friends  that  day,  melted  into 
one  unity  of  despotism,  in  order  that  they  might  en 
slave  men?  They  had  unity  of  idea  and  unity  of  ac 
tion,  that  day.  Do  you  remember  the  speeches  of  Mr. 
Curtis  and  Mr.  Hallett ;  their  yelp  against  the  inaliena 
ble  rights  of  men;  their  howl  at  God's  higher  law? 
The  worser  half  of  that  platform  is  now  the  United 
States  court;  —  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  judge,  the 
United  States  attorney.  They  got  their  offices  for 
their  political  services  past  and  for  their  character  — 
very  fitting  reward  to  very  fitting  men !  A  man  pro 
fesses  a  fondness  for  kidnapping,  hurrahs  for  it  in 
Faneuil  Hall :  —  give  him  the  United  States  judgeship ; 


RIGHTS  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA         383 

make  him  United  States  attorney  —  fit  to  fit !  When 
slavery  dispenses  offices,  every  service  rendered  to  des 
potism  is  well  paid.  Men  with  foreheads  of  brass, 
with  iron  elbows,  with  consciences  of  gum  elastic,  whose 
chief  commandment  of  their  law,  their  prophets,  and 
their  gospel,  is  to 

—  crook  the  pregnant  hinges   of  the  knee, 
Where  thrift  may  follow  fawning;" 

verily  they  shall  have  their  reward !  They  shall  be 
come  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  judges;  yea,  attorneys  of  the 
United  States ! 

In  1836,  a  poor  slave  girl  named  Med,  who  had 
been  brought  from  Louisiana  to  Boston  by  her  master, 
sued  for  her  freedom  in  the  courts  of  Massachusetts. 
Mr.  Benjamin  R.  Curtis  appeared  as  the  slave-hunter's 
counsel,  long,  and  stoutly,  and  learnedly  contending 
that  she  should  not  receive  her  freedom  by  the  laws, 
Constitution,  and  usages  of  this  Commonwealth,  but 
should  be  sent  back  to  eternal  bondage.*  On  the  7th 
of  March,  1850,  Mr.  Webster  made  his  speech  against 
freedom,  so  fatal  to  himself ;  but  soon  after  found  such 
a  fire  in  his  rear  that  he  must  return  to  Massachusetts 

*  The  girl  was  set  free,  and  the  principle  laid  down  that 
slaves  coming  to  a  free  State  with  the  consent  of  their  masters, 
secured  their  freedom.  An  account  of  the  case  was  published 
in  the  Boston  Daily  Advertiser  of  August  29,  1836,  and  intro 
duced  with  the  following  editorial  comment :  — "  In  some  of  the 
States  there  is,  we  believe,  legislative  provision  for  cases  of 
this  sort  [namely,  allowing  the  master  to  bring  and  keep  slaves 
in  bondage],  and  it  would  seem  that  some  such  provision  is 
necessary  in  this  State,  unless  we  would  prohibit  citizens  of  the 
slaveholding  States  from  traveling  in  this  State  with  their 
families,  and  unless  we  would  permit  such  of  them  as  wish  to 
emancipate  their  slaves,  to  throw  them  at  their  pleasure  upon 
the  people  of  this  State." 


384  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

to  rescue  his  own  popularity  —  then  apparently  in 
great  peril.  On  the  29th  of  April,  the  same  Mr.  Cur 
tis,  faithful  to  his  proclivities  towards  slavery,  made 
a  public  address  to  the  apostate  senator,  at  the  Revere 
House,  and  expressed  his  "  abounding  gratitude  for 
the  ability  and  fidelity "  which  Mr.  Webster  had 
"  brought  to  the  defense  of  the  Constitution  and  the 
Union ;  "  praising  him  as  "  eminently  vigilant,  wise, 
and  faithful  to  our  country,  without  shadow  of  turn 
ing."  At  the  Union  meeting  in  Faneuil  Hall  (Nov. 
26th),  Mr.  Curtis  declared  the  fugitive  slaves  "  a  class 
of  foreigners,"  "  with  whose  rights  Massachusetts  has 
nothing  to  do.  It  is  enough  for  us  that  they  have  no 
right  to  be  liere."  Other  services,  similar  or  analogous, 
which  he  has  rendered  to  the  cause  of  inhumanity,  I 
here  pass  by. 

This  is  a  world  in  which  "  men  do  nothing  for  noth 
ing;  "  the  workman  is  worthy  of  his  hire;  in  due  time 
Mr.  Curtis  received  his  reward. 

He  has  lately  (June  7th)  "charged"  the  grand 
jury  of  the  circuit  court  of  the  United  States,  point 
ing  out  their  duty  in  respect  to  recent  events  in  Boston. 
A  Federal  enactment  of  1790  provides  that,  if  any  per 
son  shall  wilfully  obstruct,  resist,  or  oppose  any  officer 
of  the  United  States  in  executing  any  legal  writ  or 
process  thereof,  he  shall  be  imprisoned  not  more  than 
twelve  months,  and  fined  not  more  than  three  hundred 
dollars.  Mr.  Curtis  charges  that  the  offense  is  "  a 
misdemeanor :  "  to  constitute  the  crime,  it  is  "  not  nec 
essary  to  prove  the  accused  used  or  even  threatened 
active  violence."  "  If  a  multitude  of  persons  should 
assemble,  even  in  a  public  highway,  with  the  design  to 
stand  together,  and  thus  prevent  the  officer  from  pass 
ing  freely  along  the  way,  ....  this  would  of 


RIGHTS  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA         385 

itself,  and  without  any  active  violence,  be  such  an  ob 
struction  as  is  contemplated  by  this  law." 

So  much  for  what  constitutes  the  crime.  Now  see 
who  are  criminals :  "  All  who  are  present  and  actually 
obstruct,  resist,  or  oppose,  are  of  course  guilty.  So 
are  all  who  are  present,  leagued  in  the  common  design, 
and  so  situated  as  to  be  able,  in  case  of  need,  to  afford 
assistance  to  those  actually  engaged,  though  they  do 
not  actually  obstruct,  resist,  or  oppose."  That  is,  they 
are  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor,  because  they  are  in  the 
neighborhood  of  such  as  oppose  a  constable  of  the 
United  States,  and  are  "  able  "  "  to  afford  assistance." 
"  If  they  are  present  for  the  purpose  of  affording  as 
sistance,  though  no  overt  act  is  done  by  them,  they 
are  still  guilty  under  this  law."  They  are  guilty  of 
a  misdemeanor,  not  merely  as  accessory  before  the  fact, 
but  as  principals,  for  "  in  misdemeanors  all  are  prin 
cipals." 

"  Not  only  those  who  are  present,  but  those  who, 
though  absent  when  the  offense  was  committed,  did 
procure,  counsel,  command,  or  abet  others  to  commit 
the  offense,  are  indictable  as  principals."  But  what 
amounts  to  such  counseling  as  constitutes  a  misde 
meanor?  "  Evincing  an  express  liking,  approbation, 
or  assent  to  another's  criminal  design."  It  need  not 
appear  that  the  precise  time,  or  place,  or  means  ad 
vised,  were  used."  So  all  who  evinced  "  an  express 
liking,  approbation,  or  assent  "  to  the  rescue  of  Mr. 
Burns  are  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor;  if  they  evinced 
"  an  express  liking  "  that  he  should  be  rescued  by  a 
miracle  wrought  by  Almighty  God, —  and  some  did 
express  "  approbation  "  of  that  "  means," —  they  are 
indictable,  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor ; "  "  it  need  not 
appear  that  the  precise  time,  or  place,  or  means  ad- 
XIII— 25 


386  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

vised,  were  used !  "  If  any  colored  woman,  during  the 
wicked  week  —  which  was  ten  days  long  —  prayed  that 
God  would  deliver  Anthony,  as  it  is  said  his  angel  de 
livered  Peter,  or  said  "  Amen  "  to  such  a  prayer,  she 
was  "guilty  of  a  misdemeanor:"  to  be  indicted  as  a 
"  principal." 

So  every  man  in  Boston  who,  on  that  bad  Friday, 
stood  in  the  streets  of  Boston  between  Court  Square 
and  T  Wharf,  was  "  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor,"  liable 
to  a  fine  of  three  hundred  dollars,  and  to  jailing  for 
twelve  months.  All  who  at  Faneuil  Hall  stirred  up 
the  minds  of  the  people  in  opposition  to  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill;  all  who  shouted,  who  clapped  their  hands 
at  the  words  or  the  countenance  of  their  favorites,  or 
who  expressed  "  approbation  "  by  a  whisper  of  "  as 
sent,"  are  "  guilty  of  misdemeanor."  The  very 
women  who  stood  for  four  days  at  the  street  corners, 
and  hissed  the  infamous  slave-hunters  and  their  co 
adjutors,  they,  too,  ought  to  be  punished  by  fine  of 
three  hundred  dollars  and  imprisonment  for  a  year! 
Well,  there  were  fifteen  thousand  persons  "  assembled  " 
"  in  the  highway  "  of  the  city  of  Boston  that  day  op 
posed  to  kidnapping ;  half  the  newspapers  in  the  coun 
try  towns  of  Massachusetts  "  evinced  an  express  lik 
ing  "  for  freedom,  and  opposed  the  kidnapping ;  they 
are  all  "  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor ;  "  they  are  "  prin 
cipals."  Nay,  the  few  ministers  all  over  the  State,  who 
preached  that  kidnapping  was  a  sin ;  those  who  read 
brave  words  out  of  the  Old  Testament  or  the  New; 
those  who  prayed  that  the  victim  might  escape:  they, 
likewise,  were  "  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor,"  liable  to  be 
fined  three  hundred  dollars  and  jailed  for  twelve 
months.  Excellent  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  judge!  Mr. 
Webster  did  wisely  in  making  that  appointment !  He 


RIGHTS  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA         387 

chose  an  appropriate  tool.     The  charge  was  worthy 
of  the  worst  days  of  Jeffreys  and  the  second  James ! 

We  all  know  against  whom  this  judicial  iniquity 
was  directed  —  against  men  who  at  Faneuil  Hall,  under 
the  pictured  and  sculptured  eyes  of  John  Hancock 
and  the  three  Adamses,  appealed  to  the  spirit  of  hu 
manity,  not  yet  crushed  out  of  your  heart  and  mine, 
and  lifted  up  their  voices  in  favor  of  freedom  and  the 
eternal  law  of  God.  If  he  had  called  us  by  our  names 
he  could  not  have  made  the  thing  plainer.  You  know 
the  zeal  of  the  United  States  attorney,  you  have  heard 
of  the  swearing  before  the  grand  jury  and  at  the  grand 
jury.  Did  the  judge's  lightning  only  glow  with  ju 
dicial  ardor  and  zeal  for  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill?  —  or 
was  it  also  red  with  personal  malignity  and  family 
spleen  ?  Judge  you ! 

But,  alas!  there  was  a  grand  jury,  and  the  Sal- 
monean  thunder  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  judge  fell 
harmless  —  quenched,  conquered,  disgraced,  and  brutal 
-  to  the  ground.  Poor  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  court !  it 
can  only  gnash  its  teeth  against  freedom  of  speech  in 
Faneuil  Hall ;  only  bark  and  yelp  against  the  inaliena 
ble  rights  of  man,  and  howl  against  the  higher  law  of 
God !  it  cannot  bite !  Poor  imbecile,  malignant  court ! 
What  a  pity  that  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  judge  was  not 
himself  the  grand  jury,  to  order  the  indictment !  what  a 
shame  that  the  attorney  was  not  a  petty  jury  to  con 
vict !  Then  New  England,  like  Old,  might  have  had 
her  "  bloody  assizes,"  and  Boston  streets  might  have 
streamed  with  the  heart's  gore  of  noble  men  and  women  ; 
and  human  heads  might  have  decked  the  pinnacles  all 
round  the  town ;  and  Judge  Curtis  and  Attorney  Hal- 
lett  might  have  had  their  place  with  Judge  Jeffreys 
and  John  B oilman  of  old.  What  a  pity  that  we  have 


388  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

a  grand  jury  and  a  traverse  jury  to  stand  between 
the  malignant  arm  of  the  slave-hunter  and  the  heart 
of  you  and  me!  Perhaps  the  court  will  try  again, 
and  find  a  more  pliant  grand  jury,  easier  to  intimidate. 
Let  me  suggest  to  the  court,  that  the  next  time  it  should 
pack  its  jurors  from  the  marshal's  "  guard."  Then 
there  will  be  unity  of  idea ;  of  action,  too  —  the  court  a 
figure  of  equilibrium.* 

At  a  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  meeting  in  Faneuil  Hall,  it 
is  easy  to  ask  a  minister  a  question  designed  to  be  in 
sulting,  and  not  dare  listen  to  the  proffered  reply ;  easy 
to  bark  at  justice,  and  howl  at  the  inalienable  rights 
of  man;  easy  to  yelp  out  the  vengeance  of  a  corrupt 
administration  of  slave-hunters  upon  all  who  love  the 
higher  law  of  God ;  but  He  himself  has  so  fashioned  the 
hearts  of  men  that  we  instinctively  hate  all  tyranny,  all 
oppression,  all  wrong;  and  the  hand  of  history  brands 
ineffaceable  disgrace  on  the  brass  foreheads  of  all  such 
as  enact  iniquity  by  statute,  and  execute  wickedness  as 
law.  The  memory  of  the  wicked  shall  rot.  Scroggs 
and  Jeffreys  also  got  their  appointment  as  pay  for 
their  service  and  their  character  —  fitting  blood 
hounds  for  a  fitting  king.  For  near  two  hundred  years 
their  names  have  been  a  stench  in  the  face  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  tribe.  Others  as  unscrupulous  may  take  warn 
ing  by  their  fate. 

Thus  has  slavery  debauched  the  Federal  courts. 

VII.  Alas  me!  Slavery  has  not  ended  yet  its  long 
career  of  sin.  Its  corruption  is  sevenfold.  It  de 
bauches  the  elected  offices  of  our  city,  and  even  our 
State.  In  the  Sims  time  of  1851,  the  laws  of  Mas- 

*The  experiment  was  made;  the  brother-in-law  of  the  Fugi 
tive  Slave  Bill  judge  was  put  on  the  jury,  and  indictments 
were  found  in  October  and  November. 


RIGHTS  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA 

sachusetts  were  violated  nine  days  running,  and  the 
Free-soil  governor  sat  in  the  State  House  as  idle  as  a 
feather  in  his  chair.  In  the  wicked  week  of  1854,  the 
Whig  governor  sat  in  the  seat  of  his  predecessor ;  Mas 
sachusetts  was  one  of  the  inferior  counties  of  Virginia, 
and  a  slave-hunter  had  eminent  domain  over  the  birth 
place  of  Franklin  and  the  burial-place  of  Hancock ! 
Nay,  against  our  own  laws  the  Free-soil  mayor  put  the 
neck  of  Boston  in  the  hands  of  a  "  train-band  captain  " 

—  the   people   "  wondering  much  to   see   how  he  did 
ride ! "     Boston    was    a    suburb    of    Alexandria ;    the 
mayor  a  slave-catcher  for  our  masters  at  the  South! 
You  and  I  were  only  fellow-slaves ! 

All  this  looks  as  if  slavery  was  to  triumph  over 
freedom.  But  even  this  is  not  the  end.  Slavery  has 
privately  emptied  her  seven  vials  of  wrath  upon  the  na 
tion  —  committing  seven  debaucheries  of  human  safe 
guards  of  our  natural  rights.  That  is  not  enough 

—  there  are  other  seven  to  come.     This  apocalyptic 
dragon,    grown   black   with   long-continued   deeds   o<f 
shame  and  death,  now  meditates  five  further  steps  of 
crime.     Here  is  the  programme  of  the  next  attempt 

—  a  new  political  tragedy  in  five  acts. 

,  I.  The  acquisition  of  Dominica  —  and  then  all 
Hayti  —  as  new  slave  territory. 

II.  The  acquisition  of  Cuba,  by  purchase,  or  else  by 
private  filibustering  and  public  war, —  as  new  slave  ter 
ritory.  I 

III.  The  re-establishment  of  slavery  in  all  the  free 
States,   by   judicial   "  decision "   or  legislative  enact 
ment.     Then  the  master  of  the  North  may  "  sit  down 
with  his  slaves  at  the  foot  of  Bunker  Hill  monument !  " 

IV.  The    restoration    of    the    African    slave-trade, 
which  is  already  seriously  proposed  and  defended  in 


390  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

the  Southern  journals.  Nay,  the  Senate  Committee 
on  Foreign  Relations  recommend  the  first  step  towards 
it  —  the  withdrawal  of  our  fleet  from  the  coast  of 
Africa.  You  cannot  escape  the  consequence  of  your 
first  principle :  if  slavery  is  right,  then  the  slave-trade  is 
right;  the  traffic  between  Guinea  and  New  Orleans  is 
no  worse  than  between  Virginia  and  New  Orleans;  it 
is  no  worse  to  kidnap  in  Timbuctoo  than  in  Boston. 

V.  A  yet  further  quarrel  must  be  sought  with  Mex 
ico,  and  more  slave  territory  be  stolen  from  her. 

Who  shall  oppose  this  fivefold  wickedness?  The 
Fugitive  Slave  Bill  party ;  —  the  Nebraska  enslave 
ment  party?  Northern  servility  has  hitherto  been 
ready  to  grant  more  than  Southern  arrogance  dared 
to  demand! 

All  this  looks  as  if  the  third  hypothesis  would  be  ful 
filled,  and  slavery  triumph  over  freedom ;  as  if  the  na 
tion  would  expunge  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
from  the  scroll  of  Time,  and,  instead  of  honoring  Han 
cock  and  the  Adamses  and  Washington,  do  homage  to 
Kane  and  Grier  and  Curtis  and  Hallett  and  Loring. 
Then  the  Preamble  to  our  Constitution  might  read — 
"  to  establish  injustice,  insure  domestic  strife,  hinder 
the  common  defense,  disturb  the  general  welfare,  and 
inflict  the  curse  of  bondage  on  ourselves  and  our  pos 
terity."  Then  we  shall  honor  the  Puritans  no  more, 
but  their  prelatical  tormentors ;  nor  reverence  the  great 
reformers,  only  the  inquisitors  of  Rome.  Yea,  we  may 
tear  the  name  of  Jesus  out  of  the  American  Bible; 
yes,  God's  name;  worship  the  Devil  at  our  Lord's 
table,  Iscariot  for  Redeemer ! 

See  the  steady  triumph  of  despotism!  Ten  years 
more,  like  the  ten  years  past,  and  it  will  be  all  over 
with  the  liberties  of  America.  Everything  must  go 


RIGHTS  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA         391 

down,  and  the  heel  of  the  tyrant  will  be  on  our  neck. 
It  will  be  all  over  with  the  rights  of  man  in  America, 
and  you  and  I  must  go  to  Austria,  to  Italy,  or  to  Si 
beria  for  our  freedom ;  or  perish  with  the  liberty  which 
our  fathers  fought  for  and  secured  to  themselves  — 
not  to  their  faithless  sons !  Shall  America  thus  mis 
erably  perish?  Such  is  the  aspect  of  things  to-day! 

But  are  the  people  alarmed?  No,  they  fear  noth 
ing  —  only  the  tightness  in  the  money-market !  Next 
Tuesday  at  sunrise  every  bell  in  Boston  will  ring  joy 
ously  ;  every  cannon  will  belch  sulphurous  welcome 
from  its  brazen  throat.  There  will  be  processions, — 
the  mayor  and  the  aldermen  and  the  marshal  and  the 
naval  officer,  and,  I  suppose,  the  "  marshal's  guard," 
very  appropriately  taking  their  places.  There  is  a 
chain  on  the  Common  to-day  —  it  is  the  same  chain  that 
was  around  the  court-house  in  1851  —  it  is  the  chain 
that  bound  Sims ;  now  it  is  a  festal  chain.  There  are 
mottoes  about  the  Common  — "  They  mutually  pledged 
to  each  other  their  lives,  their  fortunes,  and  their  sacred 
honor."  I  suppose  it  means  that  the  mayor  and  the 
kidnappers  did  this.  "  The  spirit  of  '76  still  lives." 
Lives,  I  suppose,  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill  judges.  "  Washington,  Jefferson,  and  their 
compatriots !  —  their  names  are  sacred  in  the  heart  of 
every  American."  That,  I  suppose,  is  the  opinion  of 
Thomas  Sims  and  of  Anthony  Burns.  And  opposite 
the  great  Park  Street  Church,  where  a  noble  man  is 
this  day,  I  trust,  discoursing  noble  words,  for  he  has 
never  yet  been  found  false  to  freedom  — "  Liberty  and 
independence,  our  father's  legacy  !  —  God  forbid  that 
we  their  sons  should  prove  recreant  to  the  trust !  " 
It  ought  to  read,  "  God  forgive  us  that  we  their  sons 
have  proved  so  recreant  to  the  trust ! "  So  they  will 


392  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

celebrate  the  4th  of  July,  and  call  it  "  Independence 
Day ! "  The  foolish  press  of  France,  bought  and 
beaten  and  trodden  on  by  Napoleon  the  Crafty,  is  full 
of  talk  about  the  welfare  of  the  "Great  Nation!" 
Philip  of  Macedon  was  conquering  the  Athenian  allies 
town  by  town ;  he  destroyed  and  swept  off  two  and 
thirty  cities,  selling  their  children  as  slaves.  All  the 
Cassandrian  eloquence  of  Demosthenes  could  not  rouse 
degenerate  Athens  from  her  idle  sleep.  She  also  fell 
—  the  fairest  of  all  free  States;  corrupted  first  - 
forgetful  of  God's  higher  law.  Shall  America  thus 
perish,  all  immature ! 

So  was  it  in  the  days  of  old:  they  ate,  they  drank, 
they  planted,  they  builded,  they  married,  they  were 
given  in  marriage,  until  the  day  that  Noah  entered 
into  the  ark,  and  the  flood  came  and  devoured  them  all ! 

Well,  is  this  to  be  the  end?  Was  it  for  this  the 
Pilgrims  came  over  the  sea?  Does  Forefathers'  Rock 
assent  to  it?  Was  it  for  this  that  the  New  England 
clergy  prayed,  and  their  prayers  became  the  law  of  the 
land  for  a  hundred  years?  Was  it  for  this  that  Cotton 
planted  in  Boston  a  little  branch  of  the  Lord's  vine, 
and  Roger  Williams  and  Higginson  —  he  still  lives  in 
an  unregenerate  son  —  did  the  same  in  the  city  which 
they  called  of  peace,  Salem?  Was  it  for  this  that 
Eliot  carried  the  Gospel  to  the  Indians?  that  Chauncy, 
and  Edwards,  and  Hopkins,  and  Mayhew,  and  Chan- 
ning,  and  Ware  labored  and  prayed?  for  this  that  our 
fathers  fought  —  the  Adamses,  Washington,  Han 
cock?  for  this  that  there  was  an  eight  years'  war,  and 
a  thousand  battle-fields?  for  this  the  little  monument 
at  Acton,  Concord,  Lexington,  West  Cambridge,  Dan- 
vers,  and  the  great  one  over  there  on  the  spot  which 
our  fathers'  blood  made  so  red?  Shall  America  be- 


RIGHTS  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA 

come  Asia  Minor?  New  England,  Italy?  Boston 
such  as  Athens  —  dead  and  rotten  ?  Yes !  if  we  do  not 
mend,  and  speedily  mend.  Ten  years  more,  and  the 
liberty  of  America  is  all  gone.  We  shall  fall,  the 
laugh,  the  byword,  the  proverb,  the  scorn,  the  mock 
of  the  nations,  who  shall  cry  against  us.  Hell  from 
beneath  shall  be  moved  to  meet  us  at  our  coming,  and 
in  derision  shall  it  welcome  us :  — 

"  The  heir  of  all  the  ages,  and  the  youngest  born  of  time ! " 

We  shall  lie  down  with  the  unrepentant  prodigals  of 
old  time,  damned  to  everlasting  infamy  and  shame. 

Would  you  have  it  so?     Shall  it  be? 

To-day,  America  is  a  debauched  young  man,  of 
good  blood,  fortune,  and  family,  but  the  companion 
of  gamesters  and  brawlers ;  reeking  with  wine ;  wast 
ing  his  substance  in  riotous  living ;  in  the  lap  of  harlots 
squandering  the  life  which  his  mother  gave  him. 
Shall  he  return?  Shall  he  perish?  One  day  may  de 
termine. 

Shall  America  thus  die?  I  look  to  the  past, —  Asia, 
Africa,  Europe,  and  they  answer,  "  Yes !  "  Where  is 
the  Hebrew  Commonwealth ;  the  Roman  Republic ; 
where  is  liberal  Greece, —  Athens,  and  many  a  far- 
famed  Ionian  town ;  where  are  the  commonwealths  of 
medieval  Italy ;  the  Teutonic  free  cities  —  German, 
Dutch,  or  Swiss?  They  have  all  perished.  Not  one 
of  them  is  left.  Parian  statues  of  liberty,  sorely  muti 
lated,  still  remain ;  but  the  Parian  rock  whence  Liberty 
once  hewed  her  sculptures  out  —  it  is  all  gone.  Shall 
America  thus  perish?  Greece  and  Italy  both  answer, 
"  Yes !  "  I  question  the  last  fifty  years  of  American 
history,  and  it  says,  "  Yes."  I  look  to  the  American 
pulpit,  I  ask  the  five  million  Sunday  School  scholars, 


394.  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

and  they  say,  "  Yes."  I  ask  the  Federal  court,  the 
Democratic  party,  and  the  Whig,  and  the  answer  is 
still  the  same. 

But  I  close  my  eyes  on  the  eleven  past  missteps  we 
have  taken  for  slavery;  on  that  sevenfold  clandestine 
corruption ;  I  forget  the  Whig  party ;  I  forget  the 
present  administration;  I  forget  the  judges  of  the 
courts ;  —  I  remember  the  few  noblest  men  that  there 
are  in  society,  Church  and  State;  I  remember  the 
grave  of  my  father,  the  lessons  of  my  mother's  life; 
I  look  to  the  spirit  of  this  age  —  it  is  the  nineteenth 
century,  not  the  ninth ;  —  I  look  to  the  history  of  the 
Anglo-Saxons  in  America,  and  the  history  of  man 
kind;  I  remember  the  story  and  the  song  of  Italian 
and  German  patriots ;  I  recall  the  dear  words  of  those 
great-minded  Greeks  —  Ionian,  Dorian,  ^Etolian  ;  I  re 
member  the  Romans  who  spoke,  and  sang,  and  fought 
for  truth  and  right;  I  recollect  those  old  Hebrew 
prophets,  earth's  nobler  sons,  poets  and  saints;  I  call 
to  mind  the  greatest,  noblest,  purest  soul  that  ever 
blossomed  in  this  dusty  world ;  —  and  I  say,  "  No !  " 
Truth  shall  triumph,  justice  shall  be  law !  And,  if 
America  fail,  though  she  is  one  fortieth  of  God's  fam 
ily,  and  it  is  a  great  loss,  there  are  other  nations  be 
hind  us;  our  truth  shall  not  perish,  even  if  we  go 
down. 

But  we  shall  not  fail !  I  look  into  your  eyes  — 
young  men  and  women,  thousands  of  you,  and  men 
and  women  far  enough  from  young!  I  look  into  the 
eyes  of  fifty  thousand  other  men  and  women,  whom, 
in  the  last  eight  months,  I  have  spoken  to,  face  to  face, 
and  they  say,  "  No  !  America  shall  not  fail !  " 

I  remember  the  women  who  were  never  found  faith 
less  when  a  sacrifice  was  to  be  offered  to  great  princi- 


RIGHTS  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA         395 

pies ;  I  look  up  to  my  God,  and  I  look  into  my  own 
heart,  and  I  say,  "We  shall  not  fail!  We  shall  not 
fail!" 

This,  at  my  side,  it  is  the  willow ;  *  it  is  the  symbol 
of  weeping :  —  but  its  leaves  are  deciduous ;  the  au 
tumn  wind  will  strew  them  on  the  ground ;  and  beneath, 
here  is  a  perennial  plant;  it  is  green  all  the  year 
through.  When  this  willow  branch  is  leafless,  the 
other  is  green  with  hope,  and  its  buds  are  in  its  bosom ; 
its  buds  will  blossom.  So  it  is  with  America. 

Did  our  fathers  live?  are  we  dead?  Even  in  our 
ashes  live  their  holy  fires!  Boston  only  sleeps;  one 
day  she  will  wake!  Massachusetts  will  stir  again! 
New  England  will  rise  and  walk !  the  vanished  North 
be  found  once  more  queenly  and  majestic!  Then  it 
will  be  seen  that  slavery  is  weak  and  powerless  in  itself, 
only  a  phantom  of  the  night. 

Slavery  is  a  "  finality," —  is  it?  There  shall  be  no 
"agitation," — not  the  least, —  shall  there?  There  is 
a  Hispaniola  in  the  South,  and  the  South  knows  it. 
She  sits  on  a  powder  magazine,  and  then  plays  with 
fire,  while  humanity  shoots  rockets  all  round  the  world. 
To  mutilate,  to  torture,  to  burn  to  death  revolted  Af 
ricans  whom  outrage  has  stung  to  crime  —  that  is  only 
to  light  the  torches  of  San  Domingo.  This  black 
bondage  will  be  red  freedom  one  day:  nay,  lust,  ven 
geance,  redder  yet.  I  would  not  wait  till  that  flood 
comes  and  devours  all. 

When  the  North  stands  up,  manfully,  united,  we 
can  tear  down  slavery  in  a  single  twelvemonth;  and, 
when  we  do  unite,  it  must  be  not  only  to  destroy  slavery 
in  the  territories,  but  to  uproot  every  weed  of  slavery 
throughout  this  whole  wide  land.  Then  leanness  will 

*  Referring  to  the  floral  ornaments  that  day  on  the  desk. 


396  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

depart  from  our  souls;  then  the  blessing  of  God  will 
come  upon  us ;  we  shall  have  a  commonwealth  based  on 
righteousness,  which  is  the  strength  of  any  people,  and 
shall  stand  longer  than  Egypt, —  national  fidelity  to 
God  our  age-outlasting  pyramid! 

How  feeble  seems  a  single  nation;  how  powerless  a 
solitary  man!  But  one  of  a  family  of  forty,  we  can 
do  much.  How  much  is  Italy,  Rome,  Greece,  Pales 
tine,  Egypt  to  the  world  ?  The  solitary  man  —  a 
Luther,  a  Paul,  a  Jesus  —  he  outweighs  millions  of 
coward  souls !  Each  one  of  you  take  heed  that  the 
Republic  receive  no  harm ! 


THE  PRESENT  ASPECT  OF  THE  ANTI- 
SLAVERY  ENTERPRISE 

1856 

MR.  PRESIDENT,  LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  :  —  After 
that  Trinitarian  introduction,*  in  which  I  am  pre 
sented  before  you  as  one  anti-slavery  nature  in  three 
persons, —  a  fanatic,  an  infidel,  and  a  traitor, —  I  am 
sure  a  Unitarian  minister  will  bring  his  welcome  along 
with  him.  And  yet  I  come  under  great  disadvantages : 
for  I  follow  one  whose  color  is  more  than  the  logic, 
which  his  cause  did  not  need  (alluding  to  Mr.  Re- 
mond);  and  another  whose  sex  is  more  eloquent  than 
the  philosophy  of  noblest  men  (referring  to  Mrs. 
Blackwell),  whose  word  has  in  it  the  wild  witchery 
which  takes  captive  your  heart.  I  am  neither  an  Af 
rican  nor  a  woman.  I  shall  speak,  therefore,  some 
what  in  the  way  of  logic,  which  the  one  rejected ;  some 
thing  also,  perhaps,  of  philosophy,  which  the  other 
likewise  passed  by. 

Allow  me  to  say,  however,  still  further,  by  way  of 
introduction,  that  I  should  not  weary  your  ears  at 
all  this  morning,  were  it  not  that  another  man,  your 
friend  and  mine,  Mr.  Phillips,  lies  sick  at  home.  Re- 

*  The  President,  Mr.  Garrison,  thus  introduced  Mr.  Parker 
to  the  audience  at  New  York :  — 

"Ladies  and  Gentlemen, —  The  fanaticism  and  infidelity  and 
treason  which  are  hateful  to  the  traffickers  in  slaves  and  the 
souls  of  men  must  be  well-pleasing  to  God,  and  are  indications 
of  true  loyalty  to  the  cause  of  liberty.  I  have  the  pleasure  of 
introducing  to  you  a  very  excellent  fanatic,  a  very  good  infidel, 
and  a  first-rate  traitor,  in  the  person  of  Theodore  Parker,  of 
Boston." 

397 


398  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

member  the  threefold  misfortune  of  my  position:  I 
come  after  an  African,  after  a  woman,  and  in  the 
place  of  Wendell  Phillips. 

I  shall  ask  your  attention  to  some  Thoughts  on  the 
Present  Aspect  of  the  Anti-slavery  Enterprise,  and 
the  Forces  which  work  therefor. 

In  all  great  movements  of  mankind,  there  are  three 
special  works  to  be  done,  so  many  periods  of  work,  and 
the  same  number  of  classes  of  persons  therein  en 
gaged. 

First  is  the  period  of  sentiment.  The  business  is 
to  produce  the  right  feeling, —  a  sense  of  lack,  and  a 
fore-feeling  of  desire  for  the  special  thing  required. 
The  aim  is  to  produce  a  sense  of  need,  and  also  a  feel 
ing  of  want.  That  is  the  first  thing. 

The  next  period  is  that  of  ideas,  where  the  work 
is  to  furnish  the  thought  of  what  is  wanted, —  a  dis 
tinct,  precise,  adequate  idea.  The  sentiment  must 
precede  the  thought:  for  the  primitive  element  in  all 
human  conduct  is  a  feeling;  everything  begins  in  a 
spontaneous  emotion. 

The  third  is  the  period  of  action,  when  the  business 
is  to  make  the  thought  a  thing,  to  organize  it  into 
institutions.  The  idea  must  precede  the  action,  else 
man  begins  to  build  and  is  not  able  to  finish:  he  runs 
before  he  is  sent,  and  knows  not  where  he  is  going,  or 
the  way  thither. 

Now  these  three  special  works  go  on  in  the  anti- 
slavery  movement;  there  are  these  three  periods  ob 
servable,  and  three  classes  of  persons  engaged  in  the 
various  works.  The  first  effort  is  to  excite  the  anti- 
slavery  feeling;  the  next,  to  furnish  the  anti-slavery 
idea ;  and  the  third  is  to  make  that  thought  a  thing, — 
to  organize  the  idea  into  institutions  which  shall  be  as 


ANTI-SLAVERY  ENTERPRISE          399 

wide  as  the  idea,  and  fully  adequate  to  express  the  feel 
ing  itself. 

I.  The  primitive  thing  has  been,  and  still  is,  to 
arouse  a  sense  of  humanity  in  the  whites,  which  should 
lead  us  to  abolish  this  wickedness. 

Another  way  would  be  to  arouse  a  sense  of  indigna 
tion  in  the  person  who  has  suffered  the  wrong, —  in 
the  slave, —  and  to  urge  him,  of  himself,  to  put  a  stop 
to  bearing  the  wickedness. 

Two  things  there  were  which  hindered  this  from 
being  attempted.  First,  some  of  the  anti-slavery  lead 
ers  were  non-resistant;  they  said  it  is  wrong  for  the 
black  man  to  break  the  arm  of  the  oppressor,  and  we 
will  only  pray  God  to  break  it:  the  slaves  must  go 
free  without  breaking  it  themselves.  That  was  one 
reason  why  the  appeal  was  not  made  to  the  slave. 
The  leaders  were  non-resistants ;  some  of  them  covered 
with  a  Quaker's  hat,  some  of  them  (pointing  to  Mr. 
Garrison,  who  was  bald)  not  by  any  covering  at  all. 

The  other  reason  was,  the  slaves  themselves  were 
Africans, —  men  not  very  good  at  the  sword.  If  the 
case  had  been  otherwise, —  if  it  had  been  three  and  a 
half  millions  of  Anglo-Saxons, —  the  chief  anti-slavery 
appeal  would  not  have  been  to  the  oppressor  to  leave 
off  oppressing,  but  to  the  victim  to  leave  off  bearing 
the  oppression.  For,  while  the  African  is  not  very 
good  with  the  sword,  the  Anglo-Saxon  is  something  of 
a  master  with  that  ugly  weapon ;  at  any  rate,  he  knows 
how  to  use  it.  If  the  Anglo-Saxon  had  not  been  a 
better  fighter  than  the  African,  slave-ships  would  fill 
this  side  of  Sandy  Hook  and  Boston  Bay ;  they  would 
not  take  pains  to  go  to  the  Gulf  of  Guinea.  The 
only  constitution  which  slave-hunters  respect  is  writ 
on  the  parchment  of  a  drum-head.  If  the  three  and  a 


400  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

half  millions  of  slaves  had  been  white  men,  with  this 
dreadful  Anglo-Saxon  blood  in  their  bosoms,  do  you 
suppose  the  affair  at  Cincinnati  would  have  turned 
out  after  that  sort?  Do  you  believe  Governor  Chase 
would  have  said,  "  No  slavery  outside  of  the  slave 
States;  but,  inside  of  the  slave  States,  just  as  much  en 
slavement  of  Anglo-Saxon  men  as  you  please "  ? 
Why,  his  head  would  not  have  been  on  his  shoulders 
twenty-four  hours  after  he  had  said  it.  In  the  State 
of  Ohio,  when  Margaret  Garner  was  surrendered  up, 
there  were  four  hundred  thousand  able-bodied  men 
between  the  ages  of  eighteen  and  forty -five;  there 
were  half  a  million  of  firelocks  in  that  State;  and,  if 
that  woman  had  been  the  representative  of  three  and  a 
half  millions  of  white  persons  held  as  slaves,  every  one 
of  those  muskets  would  have  started  into  life,  and  four 
hundred  thousand  men  would  have  come  forth,  each 
with  a  firelock  on  his  shoulder;  and  then  one  hundred 
thousand  women  would  have  followed,  bringing  the 
rest  of  the  muskets.  That  would  have  been  the  state 
of  things  if  she  had  been  a  white  Caucasian  woman, 
and  not  a  black  African.  We  should  not  then  have 
asked  Quakers  to  lead  in  the  greatest  enterprise  in  the 
world :  the  leaders  would  have  been  soldiers ;  I  mean 
such  men  as  our  fathers,  who  did  not  content  them 
selves  with  asking  Great  Britain  to  leave  off  oppres 
sing  them.  They  asked  that  first ;  and  when  Great 
Britain  said,  "  Please  God,  we  never  will !  "  what  did 
the  Saxon  say  ?  "  Please  God,  I  will  make  you !  " 
And  he  kept  his  word. 

"Gods!"   (we  should  have  said,) 

"  Can  a  Saxon  people  long  debate 
Which  of  the  two  to  choose, —  slavery,  or  death  ? 
No:  let  us  rise  at  once,  gird  on  our  swords, 
.     .     .     Attack  the  foe,  break  through  the  thick  array 
Of  his  thronged  legions,  and  charge  home  upon  him !  " 


ANTI-SLAVERY  ENTERPRISE          401 

That  would  have  been  the  talk.  Meetings  would  have 
been  opened  with  prayer  by  men  who  trusted  in  God, 
and  likewise  kept  their  powder  dry. 

But  in  this  case  it  was  otherwise.  The  work  has 
not  been  to  arouse  the  indignation  of  the  enslaved, 
but  to  stir  the  humanity  of  the  oppressor,  to  touch  his 
conscience,  his  affection,  his  religious  sentiment;  or  to 
show  that  his  political  and  pecuniary  interests  re 
quired  the  freedom  of  all  men  in  America. 

And  it  has  been  very  fortunate  for  us  that  this  great 
enterprise  fell  into  the  hands  of  just  such  men  as 
these, —  that  it  was  not  soldiers  who  chiefly  engaged 
in  it,  but  men  of  peace.  By  and  by  I  will  show  you 
why. 

The  attempt  was  made  at  first,  and  by  that  gentle 
man  too  (pointing  to  Mr.  Garrison),  with  others,  to 
arouse  the  anti-slavery  feeling  in  the  actual  slave 
holders  at  the  South.  You  know  what  followed.  He 
and  every  one  who  tried  it  there  were  driven  over  the 
border.  Then  the  attempt  was  made  at  the  North; 
and  there  it  has  been  continued.  It  is  exceedingly 
important  to  get  a  right  anti-slavery  feeling  at  the 
North:  for  two-thirds  of  the  population  are  at  the 
.North;  three-fourths  of  the  property,  four-fifths  of 
the  education  are  here,  and  I  suppose  six-sevenths  of 
the  Christianity  ;  and  one  of  these  days  it  may  be  found 
out  that  seven-eighths  of  the  courage  are  at  the  North 
also.  I  do  not  say  it  is  so ;  but  it  may  turn  out  so. 
So  much  for  the  matter  of  sentiment. 

II.  Now  look  at  the  next  point.  If  the  sentiment 
be  right,  then  the  mind  is  to  furnish  the  idea.  But  a 
statement  of  the  idea  before  the  sentiment  is  fixed 
helps  to  excite  the  feeling;  and  so  a  great  deal  has 
been  done  to  spread  abroad  the  anti-slavery  idea,  even 
XIII— 26 


402  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

amongst  persons  who  had  not  the  anti-slavery  feeling; 
for,  though  the  heart  helps  the  head,  the  head  likewise 
pays  back  the  debt  by  helping  the  heart.  If  Mr.  Gar 
rison  has  a  clear  idea  of  freedom,  he  will  go  to  men 
who  have  no  very  strong  sentiment  of  freedom,  and  will 
awake  the  soul  of  liberty  underneath  those  ribs  of 
death.  The  womanhood  of  Lucy  Stone  Blackwell  will 
do  it;  the  complexion  of  Mr.  Remond  will  do  it. 

In  spreading  this  idea  of  freedom,  a  good  deal  has 
been  done,  chiefly  at  the  North,  but  something  also  at 
the  South.  Attempts  have  been  made  to  diffuse  the 
anti-slavery  idea  in  tlu's  way:  Men  go  before  mer 
chants,  and  say,  "  Slavery  is  bad  economy ;  it  don't 
pay :  the  slave  can't  raise  so  much  tobacco  and  cotton 
as  the  freeman."  That  is  an  argument  which  Mr. 
May's  mercantile  friend  could  have  understood;  and 
a  political  economist  might  have  shown  him,  that,  al 
though  there  were  millions  of  dollars  invested  "  on  ac 
count  of  slavery,"  there  were  tens  of  millions  in 
vested  on  account  of  freedom;  and  that  latter  in 
vestment  would  pay  much  larger  dividends  when  it  got 
fairly  to  its  work. 

Then,  too,  the  attempt  has  been  made  to  show  that 
it  was  bad  policy :  bondage  would  not  breed  a  stalwart, 
noble  set  of  men ;  for  the  slave  contaminated  the  mas 
ter,  and  the  master's  neighbor  not  the  less. 

It  has  been  shown,  likewise,  that  slavery  injured 
education ;  and  while,  in  Massachusetts,  out  of  four 
hundred  native  white  men,  there  is  but  one  who  can 
not  read  the  Bible,  in  Virginia,  out  of  nine  white  na 
tive  adults  born  of  "the  first  families"  (they  having 
none  others  except  "black  people"),  there  is  always 
one  who  cannot  read  his  own  name. 

All  kinds   of  schemes,  too,  have  been   proposed  to 


ANTI-SLAVERY  ENTERPRISE          403 

end  this  wickedness  of  slavery.  There  has  been  a 
most  multifarious  discussion  of  the  idea;  for,  after  we 
have  the  right  sentiment,  it  is  difficult  to  get  the  intel 
lectual  work  done,  done  well,  in  the  best  way.  It  takes 
a  large-minded  man,  with  great  experience,  to  cipher 
out  all  this  intellectual  work,  and  show  how  we  can 
get  rid  of  slavery,  and  what  is  to  take  its  place,  and 
how  the  thing  is  to  be  done.  Accordingly,  very  vari 
ous  schemes  are  proposed. 

Now,  the  idea  which  has  been  attained  to,  the  anti- 
slavery  idea  reached  by  the  ablest  men,  is  embodied 
in  these  two  propositions :  first,  NO  SLAVERY  ANY 
WHERE  IN  AMERICA;  second,  NO  SLAVERY  ANYWHERE 
ON  EARTH.  That  is  the  topmost  idea. 

There  has  been  an  opposite  work  going  on.  First, 
an  attempt  "  to  crush  out  "  the  sentiment  of  humanity 
from  all  mankind.  That  was  the  idea  of  a  very  dis 
tinguished  son  of  Massachusetts.  He  said,  "  It  must 
be  crushed  out."  Second,  to  put  down  the  idea  of 
freedom.  That  has  been  attempted,  not  only  by  po 
litical  officers,  but  also  by  a  great  many  other  men.  It 
is  not  to  be  denied  that,  throughout  the  South,  in  the 
controlling  classes  of  society,  the  sentiment  and  idea 
of  freedom  are  much  less  widely  spread  than  twenty 
years  ago.  The  South  has  grown  despotic,  while  the 
North  becomes  more  humane. 

III.  The  third  thing  is  to  do  the  deed.  After  the 
sentiment  is  right,  and  the  idea  right,  organization 
must  be  attended  to.  But  the  greatest  and  most  dif 
ficult  work  is  to  get  the  heart  right  and  the  head  right ; 
for,  when  these  are  in  a  proper  condition,  the  hand  obeys 
the  two,  and  accomplishes  its  work.  Still  it  is  a  dif 
ficult  matter  to  organize  freedom.  It  will  require  great 
talent  and  experience;  for,  as  it  takes  a  master  mind 


404  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

to  organize  thought  into  matter,  and  to  make  a  Sharp's 
rifle  or  a  sewing-machine,  so  it  requires  a  great  deal 
more  mind  to  organize  an  idea  into  political  institu 
tions,  and  establish  a  State  where  the  anti-slavery  senti 
ment  shall  blossom  into  an  idea,  and  the  idea  grow  into 
a  national  fact,  a  State  where  law  and  order  secure  to 
each  man  his  natural  and  inalienable  rights. 

In  the  individual  Northern  States  a  good  deal  has 
been  done  in  five-and-twenty  years  to  organize  the  idea 
of  freedom  for  white  men,  a  little  also  for  colored  men  ; 
for  the  feeling  and  thought  must  lead  to  action.  But 
in  the  Federal  Government  the  movement  has  been  con 
tinually  the  other  way.  Two  things  are  plain  in  the 
conduct  of  Congress :  ( 1 )  Acts  to  spread  and 
strengthen  African  slavery ;  ( 2 )  Subsidiary  acts  to 
oppress  the  several  Northern  States  which  love  free 
dom,  and  to  "  crush  out  "  individual  men  who  love  free 
dom.  Slavery  centralizes  power,  and  destroys  local 
self-government. 

Something  has  been  done  in  the  Northern  States  in 
respect  to  awakening  the  sentiment  and  communicating 
the  idea ;  but  there  has  nothing  been  done  as  yet  in  the 
Federal  Congress  towards  accomplishing  the  work.  I 
mean  to  say,  for  the  last  seventy  years,  Congress  has 
not  taken  one  single  step  towards  abolishing  slavery, 
or  making  the  anti-slavery  idea  an  American  fact.  So 
even  now  all  these  three  operations  must  needs  go  on. 
Much  elementary  work  still  requires  to  be  done,  pro 
ducing  the  sentiment  and  the  idea,  before  the  nation 
is  ready  for  the  act. 

Now  look  at  the  special  forces  which  are  engaged 
in  this  enterprise.  I  divide  them  into  two  great  par 
ties. 

The  first  party  consists  of  the  political  reformers, — 


ANTI-SLAVERY  ENTERPRISE          405 

men  who  wish  to  act  by  political  machinery,  and  are 
in  government  offices,  legislative,  judicial,  and  execu 
tive. 

The  second  party  is  the  non-political  reformers,  who 
are  not,  and  do  not  wish  to  be,  in  government  offices, 
legislative,  judicial,  or  executive. 

Look  a  moment  at  the  general  functions  of  each 
party,  and  then  at  the  particular  parties  themselves, — 
at  the  business,  and  then  at  the  business  men. 

The  business  of  the  political  man,  legislative,  judi 
cial,  and  executive,  is  confined  to  the  third  part  of  the 
anti-slavery  work ;  namely,  to  organizing  the  idea,  and 
making  the  anti-slavery  thought  a  thing.  The  po 
litical  reformer,  as  such,  is  not  expected  to  kindle  the 
sentiment  or  create  the  idea,  only  to  take  what  he  finds 
ready,  and  put  it  into  form.  The  political  legislature 
is  to  make  laws  and  institutions  which  organize  the 
idea.  The  political  judiciary  is  to  expound  the  laws, 
and  is  limited  thereby.  The  political  executive  is  to 
administer  the  institution,  and  is  limited  to  that:  he 
cannot  go  beyond  it.  So  the  judiciary  and  the  ex 
ecutive  are  limited  by  the  laws  and  institutions.  The 
legislature  is  chosen  by  the  people  to  represent  the 
people;  that  is,  it  is  chosen  to  represent  and  to  or 
ganize  the  ideas,  and  to  express  the  sentiments,  of  the 
people;  not  to  organize  sentiments  which  are  in  ad 
vance  of  the  people,  or  which  are  behind  the  people. 
The  political  legislator  is  restricted  by  the  ideas  of 
the  people:  if  he  wants  what  they  do  not  want,  then 
they  do  not  want  him.  If  Senator  Wilson  had  a  mil 
lion  of  men  and  women  in  Massachusetts  who  enter 
tained  the  sentiments  and  ideas  of  Mr.  Garrison,  why 
he  would  represent  the  sentiments  and  ideas  of  Mr. 
Garrison,  would  express  them  in  Congress,  and  would 
go  to  work  to  organize  those  ideas. 


4()6  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

In  hoisting  the  anchor  of  a  ship,  two  sets  of  men 
are  at  work,  two  machines.  One,  I  think,  is  called  the 
windlass.  Many  powerful  men  put  their  levers  to 
that,  and  hoist  the  anchor  up  out  from  the  deep.  Be 
hind  them  is  the  capstan,  whose  business  it  is  to  haul 
in  the  rope.  Now,  the  function  of  the  non-political 
reformer  is  to  hoist  the  anchor  up  from  the  bottom : 
he  is  the  windlass.  But  the  business  of  Chase,  Hale, 
Sumner,  and  Wilson,  and  other  political  reformers, 
is  to  haul  in  the  slack,  and  see  that  what  the  windlass 
has  raised  up  is  held  on  to,  and  that  the  anchor  does 
not  drop  back  again  to  the  bottom.  The  men  at  the 
windlass  need  not  call  out  to  the  men  at  the  capstan, 
"  Haul  in  more  slack  f "  when  there  is  no  more  to  haul 
in.  This  is  the  misfortune  of  the  position  of  the  men 
at  the  capstan, —  they  cannot  turn  any  faster  than  the 
windlass  gives  them  slack  rope  to  wind  up.  That 
ought  to  be  remembered.  Every  political  man,  before 
he  takes  his  post,  ought  to  understand  that;  and  the 
non-political  men,  when  they  criticize  him  never  so 
sharply,  ought  to  remember  that  the  men  at  the  cap 
stan  cannot  turn  any  faster  than  the  men  at  the  wind- 


If  the  politician  is  to  keep  in  office,  he  must  accom 
modate  himself  to  the  ideas  of  the  people ;  for  the  peo 
ple  are  sovereign,  and  reign,  while  the  politicians  only 
govern  with  delegated  power,  but  do  not  reign :  they 
are  agents,  trustees,  holding  by  a  special  power  of  at 
torney,  which  authorizes  them  to  do  certain  things, 
for  doing  which  they  are  responsible  to  the  people. 
In  order  to  carry  his  point,  the  politician  must  have  a 
majority  on  his  side:  he  cannot  wait  for  it  to  grow, 
but  must  have  it  now,  else  he  loses  his  post.  He  takes 
the  wolf  by  the  ears ;  and,  if  he  lets  go,  the  wolf  eats 


ANTI-SLAVERY  ENTERPRISE          407 

him  up :  he  must  therefore  lay  hold  where  he  can  clinch 
fast  and  continue.  If  Mr.  Sumner,  in  his  place  in 
the  Senate,  says  what  Massachusetts  does  not  indorse, 
out  goes  Mr.  Sumner.  It  is  the  same  with  the  rest. 
All  politicians  are  well  aware  of  that  fact.  I  have 
sometimes  thought  they  forgot  a  great  many  other 
things ;  they  very  seldom  forget  that. 

See  the  proof  of  what  I  say.  If  you  will  go  into 
any  political  meeting  of  Whigs  or  Democrats,  you 
shall  find  the  ablest  men  of  the  party  on  the  platform, 
—  the  great  Whigs,  the  great  Democrats ;  "  the  rest  of 
mankind "  will  be  on  the  floor.  Now,  watch  the 
speeches.  They  do  not  propose  an  idea,  or  appeal 
to  a  sentiment  that  is  in  advance  of  the  people.  But, 
when  you  go  into  an  anti-slavery  meeting,  you  find 
that  the  platform  is  a  great  ways  higher  than  the 
pews,  uniformly  so.  Accordingly,  when  an  African 
speaks  (who  is  commonly  supposed  to  be  lower  than 
the  rest  of  mankind)  and  says  a  very  generous  thing, 
there  is  a  storm  of  hisses  all  round  this  hall.  What 
does  it  show?  That  the  anti-slavery  platform  which 
the  African  stands  on  is  somewhat  higher  than  the 
general  level  of  the  floor,  even  in  the  city  of  New 
York.  The  politician  on  his  platform  often  speaks 
to  the  bottom  of  the  floor,  and  not  to  the  top  of  the 
ceiling. 

So  much  for  the  political  reformers :  I  am  not  speak 
ing  of  political  hunkers.  Now  a  word  of  the  non- 
political  reformers.  Their  business  is,  first,  to  produce 
the  sentiment ;  next,  the  idea ;  and,  thirdly,  to  suggest 
the  mode  of  action.  The  anti-slavery  non-political  re 
former  is  to  raise  the  cotton,  to  spin  it  into  thread,  to 
weave  it  into  web,  to  prescribe  the  pattern  after  which 
the  dress  is  to  be  made ;  and  then  he  is  to  pass  over  the 


408  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

cloth  and  the  pattern  to  the  political  reformer,  and 
say,  "  Now,  sir,  take  your  shears,  and  cut  it  out,  and 
make  it  up."  You  see  how  very  inferior  the  business 
of  the  political  reformer  is,  after  all.  The  non-po 
litical  reformer  is  not  restricted  by  any  law,  any  con 
stitution,  any  man,  nor  by  the  people,  because  he  is 
not  to  deal  with  institutions ;  he  is  to  make  the  insti 
tutions  better.  If  he  does  not  like  the  Union,  he  is 
to  say  so;  and,  just  as  soon  as  he  has  gathered  an 
audience  inside  of  the  Union  that  is  a  little  too  large 
for  its  limits,  the  Union  will  be  taken  down  without 
much  noise,  and  piled  up, —  just  as  this  partition  (al 
luding  to  the  partition  dividing  the  hall)  has  been 
taken  down  this  morning, —  and  there  will  be  a  larger 
place.  The  non-political  reformer  can  say,  "  Down 
with  the  Constitution ! "  but  the  political  reformer  has 
sworn  to  keep  the  Constitution.  He  is  foreclosed  from 
saying  that  to-day :  by  and  by  he  can  recant  his  oath, 
and  say  it  when  he  gets  ready.  The  non-political  re 
former  is  not  restricted  by  fear  of  losing  office.  Wen 
dell  Phillips  can  say  just  what  he  pleases  anywhere:  if 
men  will  not  hear  him  in  Faneuil  Hall,  they  will,  per 
haps,  in  the  Old  South  Meeting-house.  If  they  will 
not  hear  him  there,  he  can  speak  on  the  Common ;  at 
any  rate,  in  some  little  school-house. 

The  political  reformer  must  have  a  majority  with 
him,  else  he  cannot  do  anything;  he  has  not  carried 
his  point  or  accomplished  his  end.  But  the  non-po 
litical  reformer  has  accomplished  part  of  his  end,  if  he 
has  convinced  one  man  out  of  a  million ;  for  that  one 
man  will  work  to  convince  another,  and  by  and  by  the 
whole  will  be  convinced.  A  political  reformer  must 
get  a  majority;  a  non-political  reformer  has  done 
something  if  he  has  the  very  smallest  minority,  even  if 


ANTI-SLAVERY  ENTERPRISE          409 

it  is  a  minority  of  one.  The  politician  needs  bread: 
he  goes,  therefore,  to  the  baker;  and  bread  must  be 
had  to-day.  He  says,  "  I  am  starving:  I  can't  wait." 
The  baker  says,  "  Go  and  raise  the  corn."  "  Why, 
bless  you,"  he  replies,  "  it  will  take  a  year  to  do  that ; 
and  I  can't  wait."  The  non-political  reformer  does 
not  depend  on  the  baker.  The  baker  says,  "  I  have 
not  much  flour."  "  Very  well,"  he  says,  "  I  am  going 
to  procure  it  for  you."  So  he  puts  in  the  seed,  and 
raises  the  harvest.  Sometimes  he  must  take  the  land 
wild,  and  even  cut  down  the  forest,  and  scare  off  the 
wild  beasts.  After  he  has  done  that  preliminary  work, 
he  has  to  put  in  the  anti-slavery  seed,  raise  the  anti- 
slavery  corn,  and  then  get  the  public  baker  to  make 
the  bread  with  which  to  feed  the  foremost  of  the  po 
litical  reformers, —  men  like  Seward,  Hale,  Sumner, 
and  Wilson.  They  do  all  that  is  possible  in  their  pres 
ent  position,  with  such  a  constituency  behind  them: 
they  will  do  more  and  better  soon  as  the  people  com 
mand  ;  nay,  they  will  not  wait  for  orders, —  soon  as 
the  people  allow  them.  These  men  are  not  likely  to 
prove  false  to  their  trust.  They  urge  the  people  for 
ward. 

So  much  for  the  business.  Now  look  at  the  business 
men. 

I.  Look  first  at  the  political  part  of  the  anti-slavery 
forces. 

1.  There  is  the  Republican  party.  That  is  a  direct 
force  for  anti-slavery;  but,  as  the  anti-slavery  idea 
and  sentiment  are  not  very  wide-spread,  the  ablest 
members  of  the  Republican  party  are  forced  to  leave 
their  special  business  as  politicians,  and  go  into  the 
elementary  work  of  the  non-political  reformers.  Ac 
cordingly,  Mr.  Wilson  stumped  all  Massachusetts  last 


410  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

year, —  yes,  all  the  North ;  not  working  for  a  purpose 
purely  political,  but  for  a  purpose  purely  anti-slavery, 
-  to  excite  the  anti-slavery  sentiment,  to  produce  an 
anti-slavery  idea.  And  Mr.  Sumner  has  had  to  do 
that  work,  even  in  our  city  of  Boston.  Yet  New  Eng 
land  is  further  advanced  in  anti-slavery  than  any  other 
part  of  America.  The  superiority  of  the  Puritan 
stock  shows  itself  everywhere ;  I  mean  its  moral  su 
periority.  Look  at  this  platform:  how  many  persons 
here  are  of  New  England  origin?  If  an  anti-slavery 
meeting  was  held  at  San  Francisco  or  New  Orleans,  it 
would  be  still  the  same;  the  platform  would  be  Yan 
kee.  It  is  the  foot  of  New  England  which  stands  on 
that  platform.  It  is  to  tread  slavery  down.  But, 
notwithstanding  New  England  is  the  most  anti-slavery 
portion  of  the  whole  land,  these  political  men,  whose 
business  ought  to  be  only  to  organize  the  anti-slavery 
ideas,  and  give  expression  to  anti-slavery  sentiments 
in  the  Senate,  or  House  of  Representatives,  are  forced 
to  abandon  that  work  from  time  to  time,  to  go  about 
amongst  the  people,  and  produce  the  anti-slavery  senti 
ment  and  idea  itself.  Let  us  not  be  very  harsh  in 
criticising  these  men,  remembering  that  they  are  not 
so  well  supported  behind  as  we  could  all  wish  they 
were. 

This  Republican  party  has  some  exceedingly  able 
men.  As  a  Massachusetts  man,  in  another  State,  I  am 
not  expected  to  say  anything  in  praise  of  Mr.  Sum 
ner,  or  Mr.  Wilson,  or  Mr.  Banks.  It  would  be 
hardly  decorous  for  a  Massachusetts  man,  out  of  his 
own  State,  to  speak  in  praise  of  those  men.  And  they 
need  no  praise  from  my  lips.  And,  as  a  New  Eng 
land  man,  I  think  it  is  not  necessary  for  me  to  praise 
Mr.  Hale  or  Mr.  Foote,  Mr.  Collamer,  Mr.  Fessenden, 


ANTI-SLAVERY  ENTERPRISE 

or  any  other  eminent  political  men  of  New  England. 
But,  as  a  New  Englander  and  a  Massachusetts  man, 
you  will  allow  me  to  say  a  word  in  praise  of  one  who 
has  no  drop  of  Puritan  blood  in  his  veins ;  who  was 
never  in  New  England  but  twice, —  the  first  time  to 
attend  a  cattle-show,  and  the  last  to  stand  on  Plymouth 
Rock,  on  Forefathers'  Day,  and,  in  the  bosom  of  the 
sons  and  daughters  of  the  Puritans,  to  awaken  the 
anti-slavery  sentiment  and  kindle  the  anti-slavery  idea. 
I  am  speaking  of  your  own  Senator  Seward.  As  I 
cannot  be  accused  of  State  pride  or  of  sectional  vanity 
in  praising  him,  let  me  say,  that,  in  all  the  United 
States,  there  is  not  at  this  day  a  politician  so  able,  so 
far-sighted,  so  cautious,  so  wise,  so  discriminating, 
and  apparently  so  gifted  with  power  to  organize  ideas 
into  men,  and  administer  that  organization,  as  Wil 
liam  Henry  Seward.  I  know  the  other  men ;  I  detract 
nothing  from  them.  It  is  a  great  thing  to  be  second 
where  Seward  is  first. 

Of  course,  this  party,  as  such,  will  make  mistakes ; 
individual  Republicans  will  do  wrong  things.  It  has 
been  declared  here  that  Mr.  Hale  says,  in  his  place  in 
the  Senate,  that  he  would  not  disturb  slavery  nor  the 
slaveholders.  I  doubt  that  he  ever  said  so  in  public; 
I  am  sure  it  is  not  his  private  opinion.  I  know  not 
what  he  said  that  has  been  so  misunderstood.  His 
sentiment  is  as  strongly  anti-slavery  as  our  friend 
Garrison's;  but  he  is  just  now  in  what  they  call  a 
"  tight  place ,  "  he  wants  to  do  one  thing  at  a  time. 
The  same  is  true  of  Henry  Wilson  and  of  Charles 
Sumner:  they  want  to  do  one  thing  at  a  time.  I  do 
not  find  fault  with  their  wishing  to  do  that.  The  Con 
stitution  is  the  power  of  attorney  which  tells  them  how 
to  act  as  official  agents  of  the  people;  how  to  govern 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

for  the  sovereign  people,  whose  vicegerents  they  are. 
But  there  are  Republican  politicians  who  limit  their 
work  to  one  special  thing,  and  say,  "  To-day  will  we 
do  this,  and  then  strike  work  for  ever.  We  do  not 
intend  to  do  anything  to-morrow."  They  say, 
"  Please  God,  we  will  pull  up  these  weeds  to-day." 
The  South  says,  "  You  shan't !  "  And  these  men  say, 
"  Let  us  pull  up  these :  we  will  never  touch  those  which 
grow  just  the  other  side  of  the  path."  They  hate 
those  other  weeds  just  as  much ;  they  mean  to  pull  them 
up:  but  I  am  sorry  to  hear  them  say  they  do  not  in 
tend  to :  and  I  am  glad  to  hear  severe  censure  passed 
upon  them  for  promising  never  to  do  that  particular 
thing, —  not  for  taking  one  step  at  a  time.  If  we  only 
find  fault  with  real  offenders,  we  shall  still  have  work 
enough  to  do. 

I  say  this  party  has  great  names  and  powerful  men. 
It  will  gain  others  from  the  Democrats  and  from  the 
Whigs  alike.  See  what  it  has  gathered  from  the  Dem 
ocrats  !  Look  at  that  high-toned  and  noble  newspa 
per,  the  Evening  Post,  and  its  editor,  not  only  gifted 
with  the  genius  of  poetry,  which  is  a  great  thing,  but 
with  the  genius  of  humanity,  which  is  tenfold  greater. 
See  likewise  such  a  man  as  Francis  P.  Blair  coming 
into  this  movement !  Governor  Chase  is  another  that 
it  has  gathered  from  that  party.  There  are  various 
other  men  whom  I  might  mention  from  both  the  old 
political  parties.  Then  see  what  service  is  rendered 
to  the  cause  of  humanity  by  a  newspaper,  which,  a 
few  years  ago,  seemed  sworn  for  ever  to  Henry  Clay. 
I  speak  of  the  only  paper  in  the  world  which  counts  its 
readers  by  the  million, —  the  New  York  Tribune.  The 
Republican  party  gathers  the  best  hearts  and  the 
noblest  heads  out  of  the  Whig  and  the  Democratic 


ANTI-SLAVERY  ENTERPRISE          413 

parties.  If  faithful,  it  will  do  more  in  this  way  for 
the  future  than  in  the  past.  The  Democratic  party 
continues  to  exist  by  these  two  causes:  (1)  Its  ad 
mirable  organization;  (£)  The  tradition  of  noble  ideas 
and  sentiments.  In  this  respect,  it  is  to  the  Americans 
what  the  Catholic  Church  is  to  Europe ;  the  leaders  of 
the  two  about  equally  corrupt,  the  rank  and  file  about 
equally  deceived,  hoodwinked,  and  abused.  Which  is 
the  better, —  to  be  politician-ridden,  or  priest-ridden? 
Good  men  will  become  weary  of  such  service,  and  leave 
the  party  for  a  better,  soon  as  they  are  sure  that  it  is 
better. 

2.  Look  next  at  the  American  party,  so  called:  it 
is  anti-American  in  some  particulars.  This  is  an  in 
direct  anti-slavery  force,  as  the  Republican  party  is  a 
direct  anti-slavery  force.  I  suppose  you  know  what 
its  professed  principle  is, —  "  No  foreign  influence  in 
our  politics."  Now,  that  principle  comes  partly  from 
a  national  instinct,  whose  function  is  this :  first,  to  pre 
vent  the  excess  of  foreign  blood  in  our  veins ;  and,  sec 
ondly,  the  excess  of  foreign  ideas  in  the  American  con 
sciousness.  Well,  it  was  necessary  there  should  be 
that  party.  It  has  a  very  important  function;  be 
cause  it  is  possible  for  a  people  to  take  so  much  for 
eign  blood  in  its  veins,  and  so  many  foreign  ideas  to 
its  consciousness,  that  its  nationality  perishes. 

In  part,  this  principle  comes  from  the  national  in 
stinct;  and  that  is  always  stronger  in  the  great  mass 
of  the  people  than  it  is  in  any  class  of  men  with  "  su 
perior  education :  "  for  the  superior  education  consists 
almost  wholly  in  development  of  the  understanding, — 
the  thinking  part, —  not  in  culture  of  the  conscience, 
the  affections,  and  the  religious  element.  Therefore, 
for  the  national  instinct,  I  never  look  to  lawyers,  min- 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

isters,  doctors,  literary  and  scientific  men,  or,  in  short, 
to  the  class  of  men  who  have  what  is  called  the  u  best 
education :  "  I  look  to  the  great  mass  of  the  people. 
It  seems  to  me  that  the  national  instinct  of  the  Saxon 
had  something  to  do  in  making  this  principle  of  the 
American  party  so  popular. 

However,  I  do  not  think  the  chief  devotion  to  this 
principle  comes  from  that  source,  but  from  one  very 
much  corrupter  than  that, —  a  source  a  great  deal 
lower  than  the  uneducated  mass  of  the  Northern  peo 
ple.  It  comes  from  political  partisans, —  men  who 
want  office.  There  are  two  ways  of  getting  into  high 
office.  One  is  to  fly  there:  that  is  a  very  good  way  for 
an  animal  furnished  with  wings.  The  other  is  to 
crawl  there :  that  is  the  only  way  left  for  such  as  have 
no  wings,  and  no  legs,  and  no  arms.  Well,  there  was 
a  class  of  men  at  the  North  who  could  not  fly  into  of 
fice;  and  when  the  way  which  led  up  to  the  office  was 
perpendicular,  and  went  up  straight,  they  could  not 
crawl;  they  were  so  slippery,  that  they  fell  off:  there 
was  not  strength  enough  in  their  natural  gluten  to 
hold  up  their  natural  weight.  Such  men  could  not 
fly  there;  they  could  not  crawl  there,  so  long  as  the 
road  went  straight  up ;  so  they  took  the  Know-nothing 
plank,  which  sloped  up  pretty  gradually;  and  on  it 
Mr.  Gardner  crawled  into  the  governorship  of  Massa 
chusetts.  A  good  many  men,  in  various  other  States, 
wormed  up  on  that  gently  sloping  inclined  plane,  who 
else  never  would  have  been  within  sight  of  any  con 
siderable  office.  Now  it  is  this  class  of  men,  who 
caught  sight  of  that  principle  demanded  by  the  na 
tional  instinct,  which  fears  an  excess  of  foreign  blood 
in  our  veins,  and  of  foreign  ideas  in  our  conscious 
ness  ;  and  they  said,  "  Let  us  make  use  of  that  as  a 


ANTI-SLAVERY  ENTERPRISE  415 

plank  upon  which  we  can  crawl  up  into  office."  They 
have  got  in  there ;  but  before  long  they  will  fall  out 
of  their  lofty  hole,  or,  if  they  stay  in,  will  be  shriv 
eled  up,  dried  clear  through,  and  by  and  by  be  blown 
off  so  far  that  no  particle  of  them  will  ever  be  found 
again.  The  American  party  just  now,  throughout 
all  the  United  States,  I  fear,  has  fallen  into  the  hands 
of  this  class  of  men.  It  does  not  any  longer,  I  think, 
represent  the  instinct  of  the  less-educated  people,  or 
the  consciousness  of  the  more  thoughtful  people,  but 
the  designs  of  artful,  crafty,  and  rather  low-minded 
persons. 

But  let  no  injustice  be  done.  In  the  party  are  still 
noble  men,  who  entered  it  full  of  this  national  instinct, 
with  these  three  negations  on  their  banner, —  No 
Priestcraft,  No  Liquor,  No  New  Slave  States.  Some 
of  them  still  adhere  to  the  worst  of  the  leaders  of 
their  party.  Loyalty  is  as  strong  in  the  Saxon  as  in 
the  Russian  or  Spaniard ;  as  often  attaches  itself  to  a 
mean  man.  It  is  now  painful  to  see  such  faithful 
worshipers  of  such  false  "  gods."  "  An  idol  is  noth 
ing,"  says  St.  Paul :  it  may  also  be  a  Know-nothing. 

This  party,  notwithstanding  its  origin  and  charac 
ter,  has  done  two  good  works  —  one  negative,  one 
positive. 

First,  it  helped  destroy  the  Whig  and  Democratic 
party.  That  was  very  essential.  The  anti-slavery 
man,  the  non-political  reformer,  wanted  to  sow  his  seed 
in  the  national  soil.  It  wras  dreadfully  cumbered  with 
weeds  of  two  kinds  —  Whig-weed  and  Democrat- 
weed.  The  Know-nothings  lent  their  hands  to  destroy 
these  weeds;  and  they  have  pulled  up  the  Whig-weed 
pretty  thoroughly :  they  have  torn  it  up  by  the  roots, 
shaken  the  soil  from  it,  and  it  lies  there  partly  drying 


416  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

and  partly  rotting,  but,  at  any  rate,  pretty  thor 
oughly  dead.  They  laid  hold  of  the  Democrat-weed. 
That  was  a  little  too  rank,  and  strongly  rooted  in  the 
ground,  for  them  to  pull  up.  Nevertheless,  they 
loosened  its  roots ;  they  gave  it  a  twist  in  the  trunk ; 
they  broke  off  some  branches,  and  stripped  off  some 
of  its  leaves,  and  it  does  not  look  quite  so  flourishing 
as  it  did  several  years  ago. 

Now  this  negative  work  is  very  important ;  for,  if 
we  could  get  both  these  kinds  of  weed  out  of  the  soil, 
it  would  not  be  a  very  difficult  matter  to  sow  the  seed 
and  raise  a  harvest  of  anti-slavery. 

Next  for  the  positive  work.  It  calls  out  men  who 
hitherto  have  never  taken  the  initiative  in  politics,  but 
have  voted  just  as  they  were  bid.  I  will  speak  of 
Massachusetts,  of  Boston.  We  had  there  a  large 
class  of  excellent  men,  who  always  went,  a  week  or  two 
before  the  election,  to  the  Whigs  and  Democrats,  and 
said,  "  Whom  are  we  to  vote  for? "  The  great 
Whigs  said,  "  We  have  not  yet  taken  counsel  of  the 
Lord ;  we  shall  do  so  to-morrow,  and  then  we  will  tell 
you."  So  these  men  went  home,  and  bowed  their 
knees,  and  waited  in  silent  submission ;  and  the  next 
day  their  masters  said,  "  You  are  to  vote  for  John 
Smith  or  John  Brown,"  or  whosoever  it  chanced  to 
be.  And  the  people  said,  "  Hurrah  for  the  great 
John  Smith ! "  "  Hurrah  for  the  great  John 
Brown!"  "Did  you  ever  hear  of  him  before?" 
asked  some  one.  "  No :  but  he  is  the  greatest  man 
alive."  "Who  told  you  so?"  "Oh!  our  masters 
told  us  so."  Now,  the  Know-nothings  went  to  that 
class  of  men,  and  said,  "  You  have  been  fooled  long 
enough."  "  So  we  have,"  said  the  people,  "  and  no 
mistake!  and  we  will  not  bear  it  any  longer."  They 


ANTI-SLAVERY  ENTERPRISE          417 

would  not  be  fooled  any  longer  by  the  Whigs,  and 
some  of  them  no  longer  by  the  Democrats;  but  they 
were  fooled  by  the  Know-nothings.  Nevertheless,  it 
was  an  important  thing  for  this  class  of  people  to 
take  the  initiative  in  political  matters.  If  they 
stumbled  as  they  tried  to  go  alone,  it  is  what  all  chil 
dren  have  done.  "  Up  and  take  another,"  is  good 
advice.  So  the  Know-nothings  not  only  pulled  up 
the  Whig-weed,  and  left  it  to  rot,  but  they  stirred 
the  land ;  they  ploughed  it  deep  with  a  subsoil  plough, 
turning  up  a  whole  stratum  of  people  which  had 
never  been  brought  up  to  the  surface  of  the  political 
garden  before.  That  was  another  very  important 
matter;  and  yet,  allow  me  to  say,  with  all  this  sub- 
soiling,  they  have  not  turned  up  one  single  man  who 
proves  powerful  in  politics,  and  at  the  same  time  new. 
Mr.  Wilson  owes  his  place  in  the  Senate  to  the  Know- 
nothings:  he  was  known  to  be  a  powerful  man  be 
fore.  Mr.  Banks  owes  his  place  to  this  party;  he 
also  was  a  powerful  man  before.  I  do  not  find,  any 
where  in  the  United  States,  that  the  Americans  have 
brought  one  single  able  man  before  the  people,  who 
was  not  known  to  the  people  just  as  well  before. 
You  shall  determine  what  that  fact  means.  I  shall  not 
say  just  now. 

At  the  South,  this  party  has  done  greater  service 
than  at  the  North;  for,  among  the  non-slaveholders 
at  the  South,  there  is  a  class  of  men  with  very  little 
money,  less  education,  and  no  social  standing  what 
soever.  That  class  have  been  deprived  of  their  po 
litical  power  by  the  rich,  educated,  and  respectable 
slaveholders ;  for  the  slaveholders  make  the  laws, 
fill  the  offices,  and  monopolize  all  the  government  of 
the  South.  Those  "  poor  whites  "  are  nothing  but  the 
XIII— 27 


418  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

dogs  of  the  slaveholder.  Whenever  he  says,  "  Seize 
him,  Dirt-eater ! "  away  goes  this  whole  pack  of  pro- 
slavery  dogs,  catching  hold  of  whomsoever  their  mas 
ter  set  them  upon.  This  class  of  men,  having  no 
money  and  no  education,  and  no  means  of  getting 
any,  deprived  of  political  influence,  felt  that  they 
were  crushed  down ;  but  they  were  too  ignorant  to 
know  what  hurt  them.  They  had  no  newspapers,  no 
means  of  concerted  action.  Northern  men  have  un 
dertaken  to  help  those  men.  Mr.  Vaughan  estab 
lished  his  newspaper  at  Cleveland  chiefly  for  the  pur 
pose  of  reaching  them.  Cassius  M.  Clay,  in  Ken 
tucky,  said,  "  Let  us  speak  to  that  class  of  men." 
Once  in  a  while,  you  hear  of  their  holding  a  meeting 
somewhere  in  Virginia,  and  uttering  some  kind  of 
anti-slavery  sentiment  or  idea.  Very  soon  they  are 
put  down.  Now,  the  Know-nothings  went  among  the 
"  poor  whites  "  in  the  South,  and  organized  American 
lodges.  The  whole  thing  was  done  in  secret ;  so  that 
the  organization  was  established,  and  set  on  its  legs, 
before  the  slaveholders  knew  anything  about  it:  it 
was  strong,  and  had  grown  up  to  be  a  great  boy  be 
fore  they  knew  the  child  was  born.  Of  course,  the 
Southern  Know-nothing  party,  at  first,  does  not  know 
exactly  what  to  do;  so  it  takes  the  old  ideas  of  per 
sons  that  are  about  it,  and  becomes  intensely  pro- 
slavery.  That  is  not  quite  all.  The  Whigs  at  the 
South  have  always  been  feeble.  They  saw  that  their 
party  was  going  to  pieces ;  and,  with  the  instinct  of 
that  other  animal  which  flees  out  of  the  house  which 
is  likely  to  fall,  they  sought  shelter  under  some  safer 
roof:  they  fled  to  the  Know-nothing  organization. 
The  leading  Whigs  got  control  of  the  party  at  the 
South,  and  made  that  still  more  pro-slavery  in  the 


ANTI-SLAVERY  ENTERPRISE          419 

South  which  was  already  sufficiently  despotic  at  the 
North.  Nevertheless,  there  has  now  risen  up,  at  the 
South,  a  body  of  men  who,  when  they  come  to  com 
plete  consciousness  of  themselves,  will  see  that  they 
are  in  the  same  boat  with  the  black  man,  and  that  what 
now  curses  the  black  man  will  also  ruin  the  "  pool- 
white  "  at  last.  At  present,  they  are  too  ignorant  to 
understand  that;  for  the  bulk  of  the  American  party 
at  the  South  consists  of  Know-nothings,  who  were 
such  before  they  ever  went  into  a  lodge  —  natural 
Know-nothings,  who  need  no  initiation.  Neverthe 
less,  they  are  human ;  and  the  truth,  driven  with  the 
slave-holder's  hammer,  will  force  itself  even  into  such 
heads. 

Such  men  are  not  hopeless.  One  day,  we  shall  see 
a  great  deal  of  good  come  from  them.  At  present, 
they  are  in  the  same  condition  with  the  Irish  at  Bos 
ton  —  first,  ignorant ;  and  next,  controlled  by  their 
priests ;  for,  as  the  Irish  Catholic  in  Boston  and  New 
York  is  roughly  ridden  by  that  heavy  ecclesiastical 
rider,  the  priest,  so  the  Know-nothings  at  the  South 
are  still  more  roughly  ridden  by  this  desperate  po 
litical  rider  mounted  upon  their  backs.  One  day, 
,both  the  Irish  and  the  Know-nothing  master  will  be 
unhorsed,  and  there  will  be  no  more  such  riding. 

So  much  for  these  two  anti-slavery  forces  —  one 
direct,  and  the  other  indirect. 

This,  let  me  say  in  general,  is  the  sin  of  the  poli 
tician  —  he  seeks  office  for  his  own  personal  gain, 
and,  when  he  is  in  it,  refuses  to  organize  the  anti- 
slavery  ideas  which  he  was  put  in  office  to  develop  and 
represent.  After  the  windlass  has  lifted  the  anchor, 
he  refuses  to  haul  in  the  slack  cable.  That  was  the 
case  with  Webster;  it  caused  him  his  death.  It  was 


420  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

the  case  with  Everett;  it  brought  him  to  private  life 
and  political  ruin.  Many  are  elected  as  anti-slavery 
men,  who  prove  false  to  their  professions.  New  Eng 
land  is  rich  in  traitors.  The  British  executive 
bought  Benedict  Arnold  with  money ;  the  American 
executive  has  since  bought  many  an  Arnold.  Look 
at  the  present  national  administration.  In  1852, 
had  he  published  his  programme  of  principles  and 
measures,  do  you  think  Mr.  Pierce  would  have  had 
the  vote  of  a  single  Northern  State?  Not  an  elec 
toral  vote  would  have  been  given  by  the  North  for 
robbing  the  people  of  a  million  square  miles  of  land, 
and  bestowing  it  on  three  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
slaveholders !  He  is  an  official  swindler.  He  got 
his  place  by  false  pretenses  —  the  juggling  trick  of 
the  thimble-rigger.  Mr.  Hale  says,  "  For  every 
doughfaced  representative,  there  is  a  doughfaced 
constituency."  It  is  true;  but  the  constituency  is 
not  always  quite  so  soft  as  the  delegate;  it  is  at  least 
slack-baked,  and  does  not  pretend  to  be  what  it  knows 
it  is  not. 

Here,  too,  let  me  say,  it  is  a  great  misfortune 
that  the  North  has  not  sent  more  strong  men  to  the 
political  work.  In  time  of  war,  you  take  the  ablest 
men  you  can  find,  and  put  them  to  do  the  military 
work  of  the  people.  The  North  commonly  sends  her 
ablest  men  to  science,  literature,  productive  industry, 
trade,  and  manufactures ;  the  South,  hers  to  politics ; 
and  so  she  outwits  and  beats  us  from  one  fifty  years 
to  another.  But,  in  such  a  terrible  battle  as  this 
before  us  now,  rest  assured  the  North  cannot  afford 
to  send  her  strong  men  to  callings  directly  productive 
of  pecuniary  value :  we  must  have  them  in  politics  — 
men  of  great  mind,  able  to  see  far  behind  and  be- 


ANTI-SLAVERY  ENTERPRISE 

fore;  of  great  experience,  to  organize  and  administer. 
Above  all  must  our  statesmen  be  men  of  great  justice 
and  humanity,  such  as  reverence  the  higher  law  of 
God.  Integrity  is  the  first  thing  needed  in  a  statesman. 
The  time  may  come  when  the  men  of  largest  human 
power  may  go  to  the  shop,  the  counting-room,  the 
farm,  the  ship,  to  science,  or  preaching:  just  now  we 
cannot  afford  to  make  a  land-surveyor  out  of  a  Wash 
ington,  or  turn  our  Franklins  into  tallowchandlers. 
When  we  can  afford  such  expenditure,  I  shall  not  ob 
ject:  now  we  are  not  rich  enough  to  allow  Moses  to 
tend  sheep,  asses,  and  young  camels,  or  to  keep  Paul 
at  tent-making. 

Here  are  the  anti-slavery  forces  which  are  not  po 
litical.  They  are  various. 

At  first,  the  anti-slavery  men  looked  to  the  American 
Church,  and  said :  "  That  will  be  our  great  bulwark 
and  defender."  Instead  of  being  a  help,  it  has  been  a 
hindrance.  If  the  American  Church,  twenty  years 
ago,  could  have  dropped  through  the  continent,  and 
disappeared  altogether,  the  anti-slavery  cause  would 
have  been  further  on  than  it  is  at  this  day.  If,  re 
maining  above  ground,  every  minister  in  the  United 
States  had  sealed  his  lips,  and  said,  "  Before  God, 
I  will  say  no  word  for  freedom  or  against  it,  in  be 
half  of  the  slaveholder  or  of  his  victim,"  the  anti- 
slavery  enterprise  would  have  been  further  on  than  it 
is  at  this  day.  I  say  that,  notwithstanding  the  ma 
jestic  memory  of  William  Ellery  Channing,  a  mag 
nanimous  man,  whose  voice  rang  like  a  trumpet 
through  the  continent,  following  that  other  clearer, 
higher,  more  widely  sounding  voice,  still  spared  to 
us  on  earth  (Mr.  Garrison's) ;  notwithstanding  the 
eloquent  words  which  do  honor  to  the  name  of  Beecher 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

and  the  heart  of  humanity ;  notwithstanding  the  pres 
ence  of  this  dear  good  soul  (referring  to  Samuel  J. 
May),  whose  presence  in  the  anti-slavery  cause  has 
been  like  the  month  whose  name  he  bears,  and  has 
brought  a  whole  lapful  of  the  sweetest  flowers, — 
the  Church  has  hindered  more  than  it  has  helped. 
For  the  tallest  heads  in  the  great  sects  were  lifted  up 
to  blaspheme  the  God  of  Righteousness,  and  commit 
the  sin  which  Mr.  Remond  says  is  second  only  to 
atheism, —  the  denial  of  humanity.  While  the  atheist 
openly  denied  God,  many  a  minister  openly  denied 
man.  I  think  the  minister  committed  the  worst  sin ; 
for  he  sinned  in  the  name  of  God,  and  hypocritically : 
he  wrought  his  blasphemy  that  he  might  gain  his 
daily  bread,  while  the  atheist  periled  his  bread  and 
his  reputation  when  he  stood  up,  and  said,  "  I  think 
there  is  no  God."  I  have  no  respect  for  atheism;  but 
when  a  man  in  the  pulpit  blasphemes  the  divinity  of 
God  by  treading  the  humanity  of  man  under  his 
anointed  foot,  I  say  I  would  take  my  chance  in  the  next 
world  with  him  who  speaks  out  of  his  own  heart,  in 
his  blindness,  and  says,  "  There  is  no  God,"  rather 
than  share  the  lot  of  that  man  who,  in  the  name  of 
Jesus  and  of  the  Father,  treads  down  humanity,  and 
declares  there  is  no  higher  law. 

There  are  a  great  many  direct  anti-slavery  forces. 

1.  The  conduct  of  the  slaveholders  in  the  South, 
and  their  allies,  has  awakened  the  indignation  of  the 
North.  The  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  was  an  anti-slavery 
measure.  We  said  so  six  years  ago ;  now  we  know  it. 
Kidnapping  is  anti-slavery;  it  makes  anti-slavery 
men.  The  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  stirred 
anti-slavery  sentiment  in  Northern  hearts.  The  con 
duct  of  affairs  in  Kansas,  Judge  Kane's  wickedness, 


ANTI-SLAVERY  ENTERPRISE 

and  the  horrible  outrage  at  Cincinnati, —  all  these 
turn  out  anti-slavery  measures.  Mr.  Douglas  stands 
in  his  place  in  the  Senate,  and  turns  his  face  north, 
and  says,  "  We  mean  to  subdue  you."  The  mass  at 
the  North  says,  "  We  are  not  going  to  be  subdued." 
It  is  an  anti-slavery  resolution.  The  South  repu 
diates  Democracy:  the  Charleston  Mercury  and  the 
Richmond  Examiner  say  that  the  Declaration  of  In 
dependence  is  a  great  mistake  when  it  says  all  men 
are  by  nature  equal  in  their  right  to  life,  liberty,  and 
the  pursuit  of  happiness, —  that  there  is  no  greater 
lie  in  the  world.  When  the  North  understands  that, 
it  says,  "  I  am  anti-slavery  at  once."  The  North  has 
not  heard  it  yet  thoroughly.  One  day  it  will. 

2.  Then  there  are  the  general  effects  of  education: 
it  enlightens  men,  so  that  they  can  see  that  slavery  is 
a  bad  speculation,  bad  economy. 

3.  Then  there   is   the   progressive   moralization   of 
the  North.     The  North  is  getting  better,  more  and 
more   Christian  and  humane.     It  was  never  so   tem 
perate  as  to-day,  never  so  just,  never  so  moral,  never 
so  humane  and  philanthropic.     To  be  sure,  even  now 
we  greatly  overlook  our  black  brother:  it  is  because 
he  is  not  an  Anglo-Saxon.     But  he  has  human  blood 
in  his  veins :  by  and  by  we  shall  see  our  black  brother 
also. 

4.  Then  the  better  portion  of  the  Northern  press 
is   on   our  side.     Consider  what  quantities   of  books 
have  been  written  within   the  last  ten  years   full  of 
anti-slavery    sentiment,   and   running   over   with   anti- 
slavery  ideas.     Think  of  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  "  and 
the  host  of  books,  only  inferior  to  that,  which  have 
been    published.     Then    look    at    the    newspapers.      I 
just  spoke  of  the  Evening  Post,  and  Tribune:  look 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

at  the  New  York  Independent,  with  twenty  thousand 
subscribers,  with  so  much  anti-slavery  in  it.  It  does 
not  go  the  length  that  I  wish  it  did,  and  sometimes 
it  does  very  mean  things ;  for  it  is  not  unitary.  See 
what  powerful  anti-slavery  agents  are  the  Evening 
Post,  the  Independent,  the  New  York  Times,  and  the 
New  York  Tribune,  and  that  whole  army  of  news 
papers,  some  of  them  in  every  Northern  city ;  not  to 
forget  the  National  Era,  at  Washington.  Besides 
these,  there  are  the  anti-slavery  newspapers  proper, 
the  Liberator,  the  Standard,  and  divers  others,  only 
second  where  it  is  praise  to  be  inferior. 

5.  Then  there  is  the  anti-slavery  party  proper, 
with  its  men,  its  money,  and  its  immense  force  in  the 
country.  What  power  of  religion  it  has !  I  know 
it  has  been  called  anti-religious,  anti-Christian,  in 
fidel.  Was  not  Jesus  of  Nazareth  nailed  to  the  cross, 
between  two  thieves,  on  the  charge  that  he  blasphemed 
God?  How  rich  is  this  party  in  its  morals,  how 
mighty  in  its  eloquence !  I  am  sorry  its  most  per 
suasive  lips  are  not  here  to-day  to  speak  for  them 
selves  and  for  you,  and  instead  of  me.  Here  is  a 
woman  also  in  the  anti-slavery  ranks.  I  need  say 
nothing  of  her:  her  own  sweet  music  just  now  awoke 
the  tune  of  humanity  in  your  hearts,  and  I  saw  the 
anti-slavery  sentiment  spring  in  tears  out  of  your 
eyes.  One  day,  from  such  watering,  it  will  blossom 
into  an  anti-slavery  idea,  and  fruiten  into  anti-slavery 
acts. 

(1.)  Here  is  the  merit  of  this  anti-slavery  party. 
It  appeals  to  the  very  widest  and  deepest  humanity. 
It  knows  no  restriction  of  State  or  Church.  If  the 
State  is  wrong,  the  anti-slavery  party  says,  "  Away 
with  the  State!"  if  the  Church  is  mistaken,  "Down 


ANTI-SLAVERY  ENTERPRISE 

with  the  Church ! "  If  the  people  are  wrong,  then 
it  says,  "  Woe  unto  you,  O  ye  people !  you  are  sinning 
against  God,  and  your  sin  will  find  you  out."  It  does 
not  appeal  to  the  politician,  the  priest,  the  editor 
alone ;  it  goes  to  the  people,  face  to  face,  eye  to  eye, 
heart  to  heart,  and  speaks  to  them,  and  with  immense 
power.  It  knows  no  man  after  the  flesh.  Let  me 
suppose  an  impossibility  —  that  Mr.  May  should  be 
come  as  Everett,  and  Mr.  Garrison  as  Webster:  would 
their  sin  be  forgiven  by  the  abolitionists?  No:  those 
who  sit  behind  them  now  would  stand,  not  on  this 
platform,  but  on  this  table,  and  denounce  them  for 
their  short-coming  and  wrong-doing.  They  spare 
no  man ;  they  forgive  no  sin  against  the  idea  of  free 
dom. 

They  are  not  selfish;  for  they  ask  nothing  except 
an  opportunity  to  do  their  duty.  And  they  have  had 
nothing  except  a  "  chance  "  to  do  that ;  always  in  ill 
report  until  now,  when  you  shall  judge  how  much 
there  is  of  good  report  awaiting  them. 

They  are  untiring.  I  wish  they  would  sink 
through  the  platform,  so  that  I  could  say  what  would 
now  put  them  to  the  blush  before  so  large  an  audi 
ence. 

They  appeal  to  the  high  standard  of  absolute  right. 
This  is  their  merit.  The  nation  owes  them  a  great 
debt,  which  will  not  be  paid  in  this  life.  Their  re 
ward  is  in  the  nobleness  which  does  such  deeds  and 
lives  such  life :  thus  they  will  take  with  them  "  an  in 
heritance  incorruptible,  undefiled,  and  which  fadeth 
not  away." 

(2.)  Here,  I  think,  is  their  defect.  They  forget, 
sometimes,  that  there  must  be  political  workmen. 
This  comes  from  the  fact,  that,  to  so  great  an  extent, 


426  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

they  are  non-voters,  even  "  non-resistants."  If  they 
were  the  opposite,  they  would  have  appealed  to  vio 
lence:  being  Quakers  and  non-resistants,  they  have  not 
done  quite  justice  always,  it  seems  to  me,  to  those  who 
work  in  the  political  way. 

This  has  been  charged  against  them:  that  they 
quarrel  among  themselves ;  two  against  three,  and 
three  against  two ;  Douglass  against  Garrison,  and 
Garrison  against  Douglass ;  the  liberty-party  men 
against  the  old  anti-slavery  men;  and  all  that.  That 
is  perfectly  true.  But  remember  why  it  is  so.  You 
can  bring  together  a  Democratic  body,  draw  your  line, 
and  they  all  touch  the  mark:  it  is  so  with  the  Whigs. 
They  have  long  been  drilled  into  it.  But,  whenever 
a  body  of  men  with  new  ideas  comes  to  organize,  there 
are  as  many  opinions  as  persons.  Pilate  and  Herod, 
bitter  enemies  of  each  other,  were  made  friends  by 
a  common  hostility  to  Jesus;  but,  when  the  twelve 
disciples  came  together,  they  fell  out:  Paul  resisted 
Peter;  James  differed  from  John;  and  so  on.  It  is 
always  so  on  every  platform  of  new  ideas,  and  will 
always  be  so  —  at  least  for  a  long  time.  We  must 
bear  with  one  another  the  best  we  can. 

I  think  that  the  anti-slavery  party  has  not  always 
done  quite  justice  to  the  political  men.  See  why.  It 
is  easy  for  Mr.  Garrison  and  Mr.  Phillips  or  me  to 
say  all  of  our  thought.  I  am  responsible  to  nobody, 
and  nobody  to  me.  But  it  is  not  easy  for  Mr.  Sum- 
ner,  Mr.  Seward,  and  Mr.  Chase  to  say  all  of  their 
thought;  because  they  have  a  position  to  maintain, 
and  they  must  keep  in  that  position.  The  political 
reformer  is  hired  to  manage  a  mill  owned  by  the  peo 
ple,  turned  by  the  popular  stream  —  to  grind  into 
anti-slavery  meal  such  corn  as  the  people  bring  him 


ANTI-SLAVERY  ENTERPRISE          427 

for  that  purpose,  and  other  grain  also  into  different 
meal.  He  is  not  principal  and  owner,  only  attorney 
and  hired  man.  He  must  do  his  work  so  as  to  suit 
his  employers,  else  they  say,  "  Thou  mayest  be  no 
longer  miller."  The  non-political  reformer  owns  his 
own  mill,  which  is  turned  by  the  stream  drawn  from 
his  private  pond:  he  put  up  the  dam,  and  may  do 
what  he  will  with  his  own  —  run  it  all  night,  on  Sun 
day,  and  the  4th  of  July;  may  grind  just  as  he  likes, 
for  it  is  his  own  corn.  He  sells  his  meal  to  such  as 
will  buy.  He  is  in  no  danger  of  being  turned  out  of 
his  office ;  for  he  has  no  master  —  is  not  hired  man  to 
any  one. 

The  anti-slavery  non-political  reformer  is  to  ex 
cite  the  sentiment,  and  give  the  idea:  he  may  tell  his 
whole  scheme  all  at  once,  if  he  will.  But  the  political 
reformer,  who,  for  immediate  action,  is  to  organize 
the  sentiment  and  idea  he  finds  ready  for  him,  cannot 
do  or  propose  all  things  at  once :  he  must  do  one  thing 
at  a  time,  tell  one  thing  at  a  time.  He  is  to  cleave 
slavery  off  from  the  government ;  and  so  must  put  the 
thin  part  of  his  wedge  in  first,  and  that  where  it  will 
go  the  easiest.  If  he  takes  a  glut  as  thick  as  an  anti- 
slavery  platform,  and  puts  it  in  anywhere,  head  fore 
most,  let  him  strike  never  so  hard,  he  will  not  rend 
off  a  splinter  from  the  tough  log;  nay,  will  only 
waste  his  strength,  and  split  the  head  of  his  own 
beetle ! 

Still,  this  non-political,  anti-slavery  party  —  averse 
to  fighting,  hostile  to  voters  under  present,  if  not  all 
possible,  circumstances  —  has  been  of  most  immense 
value  to  mankind.  It  has  been  a  perpetual  critic  on 
politicians;  and  now  it  has  become  so  powerful  that 
every  political  man  in  the  North  is  afraid  of  it;  and, 


428  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

when  he  makes  a  speech,  he  asks  not  only,  What  will 
the  Whigs  or  the  Democrats  think  of  it?  but,  What 
will  the  anti-slavery  men  say ;  what  will  the  Liberator 
and  the  Standard  say  of  it?  And,  when  a  candidate 
is  to  be  presented  for  the  office  of  President,  the  men 
who  make  the  nomination  go  to  the  Quakers  of  Penn 
sylvania,  and  say,  "  Whom  do  you  want?  "  They  go 
to  the  non-resistants  of  Massachusetts  —  men  that 
never  vote  or  take  office  —  and  ask  if  it  will  do  to  nom 
inate  this,  that,  or  the  other  man.  A  true  Church  is  to 
criticize  the  world  by  a  higher  standard.  The  non- 
political  anti-slavery  party  is  the  Church  of  America 
to  criticize  the  politics  of  America.  It  has  been  of  im 
mense  service ;  it  is  now  a  great  force. 

6.  Besides  that,  there  is  the  spirit  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  tribe,  which  hates  oppression,  which  loves  justice 
and  liberty,  and  will  at  last  have  freedom  for  all.     Look 
at  its  history  for  three  hundred  years  —  from  1556, 
when  the  three  millions  of  Old  England  were  ruled  by 
the  bloody  Mary,  to  1856,  when  the  three  millions  of 
New  England  govern  themselves !     Do  you  fear  for 
the  next  three  hundred  years?     That  historic  momen 
tum  will  not  be  lost. 

7.  Then  there  is  the  spirit  of  the  age  we  live  in. 
Only  see  what  has  been  done  in  a  century !     A  hundred 
years  ago  there  were  slaves  in  every  corner  of  the  land. 
There  are  men  on  this  platform,  whose  fathers,  within 
fourscore  years,  have  not  only  owned  black,  but  red 
and  white  slaves  also.      See  what  a  steady  march  there 
has  been  of  freedom  in  New  England,  and  throughout 
the    North  —  likewise    on    the    continent    of   Europe ! 
Christendom   repudiates   bondage.     Think    of   British 
and    French    emancipation,    of    Dutch    and    Danish. 
Slavery  is  only  at  home  in  three  places  in  Christendom, 


ANTI-SLAVERY  ENTERPRISE          429 

—  Russia,  Brazil,  and  the  south  of  the  United  States. 
A  hundred  years  ago  there  was  not  a  spot  in  all  Eu 
rope  where  there  was  not  slavery  in  one  form  or  an 
other, —  men  put  up  at  auction.  It  is  only  ninety- 
eight  years  ago  since  men  were  kidnapped  in  Glasgow, 
Scotland,  and  sold  into  bondage  for  ever  in  the  City 
of  Brotherly  Love,  at  Philadelphia.  That  thing  took 
place  in  1758.  See  what  an  odds  there  is ! 

It  is  plain  that  American  slavery  is  to  end  ultimately. 
It  cannot  stand.  The  question  before  us  is,  "  Shall  it 
ruin  America  before  it  stops  ?  "  I  think  it  will  not. 
The  next  question  is,  "  Shall  it  end  peaceably,  as  the 
Quakers  wish,  and  as  all  anti-slavery  men  wish,  or  shall 
it  end  in  blood?  "  On  that  point  I  shall  not  now  give 
my  opinion. 


XI 


THE  PRESENT  CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN 
AFFAIRS 

1856 

"  Oh !  ill  for  him,  who,  bettering  not  with  time, 

Corrupts  the  strength  of  Heaven-descended  will, 
And  ever  weaker  grows  through  acted  crime, 
Or  seeming-genial  venial  fault, — 

Recurring  and  suggesting  still! 
He  seems  as  one  whose  footsteps  halt, — 

Toiling  in  immeasurable  sand, 

And  o'er  a  weary,  sultry  land; 
Far  beneath  a  blazing  vault, 

Sown  in  a  wrinkle  of  the  monstrous  hill, 
The  city  sparkles  like  a  grain  of  salt." 

America  has  now  come  to  such  a  pass,  that  a  small 
misstep  may  plunge  us  into  lasting  misery.  Any  other 
and  older  nation  would  be  timidly  conscious  of  the  peril ; 
but  we,  both  so  confident  of  destined  triumph  and  so 
wonted  to  success,  forecast  only  victory,  and  so  heed 
none  of  all  this  danger.  Who  knows  what  is  before 
us?  By  way  of  warning  for  the  future,  look  at  the 
events  in  the  last  six  years. 

1.  In  the  spring  of  1850,  came  the  discussions  on 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  and  the  programme  of  prac 
tical  atheism ;  for  it  was  taught,  as  well  in  the  Senate 
as  the  pulpits,  that  the  American  Government  was 
amenable  to  no  natural  laws  of  God,  but  its  own  mo 
mentary  caprice  might  take  the  place  of  the  eternal 
reason.  "  The  Union  is  in  danger  "  was  the  affected 
cry.  Violent  speeches  filled  the  land,  and  officers  of 
the  government  uttered  such  threats  against  the  people 
of  the  North  as  only  Austrian  and  Russian  ears  were 

430 


CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  AFFAIRS 

wont  to  hear.  Even  "  discussion  was  to  cease."  That 
year,  the  principle  was  sown  whence  measures  have  since 
sprung  forth,  an  evil  blade  from  evil  seed. 

2.  The  next  spring,  1851,  kidnapping  went  on  in 
all  the  North.     Kane  ruled  in  Philadelphia,  Rynders  in 
New  York.     Boston  opened  her  arms  to  the  stealers  of 
men,  who  barked  in  her  streets,  and  howled  about  the 
"  Cradle  of  Liberty," —  the  hiding-place  of  her  ancient 
power.     All  the  municipal  authority  of  the  town  was 
delivered   up   to   the   kidnappers.     Faneuil   Hall   was 
crammed  with  citizen-soldiers,  volunteers  in  men-steal 
ing,  eager  for  their  — 

"  Glorious  first  essay  in  war." 

Visible  chains  of  iron  were  proudly  stretched  round 
the  court-house.  The  supreme  judges  of  Massachu 
setts  crouched  their  loins  beneath  that  yoke  of  bondage, 
and  went  under  to  their  own  place,  wherein  they  broke 
down  the  several  laws  they  were  sworn  and  paid  to 
keep.  They  gave  up  Thomas  Sims  to  his  tormentors. 
On  the  19th  of  April,  the  seventy -sixth  anniversary  of 
the  first  battle  of  the  Revolution,  the  city  of  Hancock 
and  Adams  thrust  one  of  her  innocent  citizens  into  a 
slave-prison  at  Savannah;  giving  his  back  to  the 
scourge,  and  his  neck  to  the  everlasting  yoke. 

3.  In  the  spring  of  1854,  came  the  discussions  on  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  Bill;  the  attempt  to  extend  bondage 
into  the  new  territory  just  opening  its  arms  to  the  in 
dustrious  North  ;  the  legislative  effort  to  rob  the  North 
ern  laborer  thereof,  and  give  the  spoils  to  Southern 
slaveholders.     Then  came  the   second   kidnapping  at 
Boston :  a  judge  of  probate  stole  a  defenseless  man, 
and  made  him  a  slave.     The  old  volunteer  soldiers  put 
on  their  regimentals  again  to  steal  another  victim.    But 


432  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

they  were  not  quite  strong  enough  alone ;  so  the  United 
States  troops  of  the  line  were  called  out  to  aid  the  work 
of  protecting  the  orphan.  It  was  the  first  time  I  ever 
saw  soldiers  enforcing  the  decisions  of  a  New  England 
judge  of  probate;  the  first  time  I  ever  saw  the  United 
States  soldiers  in  any  service.  This  was  characteristic 
work  for  a  democratic  army  1  Hireling  soldiers,  mostly 
Irishmen, —  sober  that  day,  at  least  till  noon, —  in  the 
public  square  loaded  their  cannon,  charged  their  mus 
kets,  fixed  their  bayonets,  and  made  ready  to  butcher 
the  citizens  soon  as  a  slaveholder  should  bid  them  strike 
a  Northern  neck.  The  spectacle  was  prophetic. 

4.  Now,  in  1856,  New  England  men  migrate  to  Kan 
sas,  taking  their  wives,  their  babies,  and  their  cradles. 
The  old  Bible  goes  also  on  that  pilgrimage, —  it  never 
fails  the  sons  of  the  Puritans.  But  the  fathers  are  not 
yet  dead ;  — 

"  E'en  in  our  ashes  live  their  wonted  fires." 

Sharp's  rifle  goes  as  missionary  in  that  same  troop ;  an 
indispensable  missionary  —  an  apostle  to  the  Gentiles 
—  whose  bodily  presence  is  not  weak,  nor  his  speech 
contemptible,  in  Missouri.  All  the  parties  go  armed. 
Like  the  father,  the  Pilgrim  son  is  also  a  Puritan,  and 
both  trusts  in  God  and  keeps  his  powder  dry. 

A  company  went  from  Boston  a  few  days  ago,  a 
few  of  my  own  friends  and  parishioners  among  them. 
There  were  some  five-and-forty  persons,  part  women 
and  children.  Twenty  Sharp's  rifles  answered  to  their 
names,  not  to  speak  of  other  weapons.  The  ablest  min 
ister  in  the  United  States  stirs  up  the  "  Plymouth 
Church  "  to  contribute  firearms  to  this  new  mission ;  and 
a  spirit,  noble  as  Davenport's  and  Hooker's,  pushes  off 
from  New  England,  again  to  found  a  New  Haven  in  the 


CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  AFFAIRS        433 

wilderness.  The  bones  of  the  regicide  sleep  in  Con 
necticut  ;  but  the  revolutionary  soul  of  fire  flames  forth 
in  new  processions  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

In  1656,  when  Boston  sent  out  her  colonists,  they 
took  matchlocks  and  snaphances  to  fend  off  the  red 
savage  of  the  wilderness ;  in  1756,  they  needed  weapons 
against  the  French  enemy ;  but,  in  1856,  the  dreadful 
tools  of  war  are  to  protect  their  children  from  the  white 
border-ruffians,  whom  the  President  of  the  United  States 
invites  to  burn  the  new  settlements,  to  scalp  and  kill. 

In  1850,  we  heard  only  the  threat  of  arms ;  in  1851, 
we  saw  the  volunteer  muskets  in  the  kidnapper's  hand ; 
in  1854,  he  put  the  United  States  cannon  in  battery ; 
in  1856,  he  arms  the  savage  Missourians.  But  now, 
also,  there  are  tools  of  death  in  the  people's  hand.  It 
is  high  time.  When  the  people  are  sheep,  the  govern 
ment  is  always  a  wolf.  What  will  the  next  step  be? 
Mr.  Gushing  says,  "  I  know  what  is  requisite ;  but  it  is 
means  that  I  cannot  suggest!  "  Who  knows  what  coup 
d'etat  is  getting  ready?  Surely  affairs  cannot  remain 
long  in  this  condition. 

To  understand  this  present  emergency,  you  must  go 
a  long  ways  back,  and  look  a  little  carefully  at  what 
lies  deep  down  in  the  foundation  of  States. 

The  welfare  of  a  nation  consists  in  these  three  things  ; 
namely :  first,  possession  of  material  comfort,  things  of 
use  and  beauty;  second,  enjoyment  of  all  the  natural 
rights  of  body  and  spirit ;  and,  third,  the  development 
of  the  natural  faculties  of  body  and  spirit  in  their  har 
monious  order,  securing  the  possession  of  freedom,  in 
telligence,  morality,  philanthropy,  and  piety.  It  ought 
to  be  the  aim  of  a  nation  to  obtain  these  three  things 
in  the  highest  possible  degree,  and  to  extend  them  to 
all  persons  therein.  That  nation  has  the  most  welfare 
XIII— 28 


434  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

which  is  the  furthest  advanced  in  the  possession  of  these 
three  things. 

Next,  the  progress  of  a  nation  consists  in  two  things : 
first,  in  the  increasing  development  of  the  natural  facul 
ties  of  body  and  spirit, —  intellectual,  moral,  affec- 
tional,  and  religious, —  with  the  consequent  increasing 
enjoyment  thereof;  and,  second,  in  the  increasing  acqui 
sition  of  power  over  the  material  world,  making  it  yield 
use  and  beauty,  an  increase  of  material  comfort  and 
elegance.  Progress  is  increase  of  human  welfare  for 
each  and  for  all.  That  is  the  most  progressive  nation 
which  advances  fastest  in  this  development  of  human 
faculties,  and  the  consequent  acquisition  of  material 
power.  There  is  no  limit  to  this  progress. 

That  is  the  superior  nation,  which,  by  nature,  has  the 
greatest  amount  of  bodily  and  spiritual  faculties,  and, 
by  education,  has  developed  them  to  the  highest  degree 
of  human  culture,  and,  consequently,  is  capacious  of 
the  greatest  amount  of  power  over  the  material  world, 
to  turn  it  into  use  and  beauty,  and  so  of  the  greatest 
amount  of  universal  welfare  for  all  and  each.  The  su 
perior  nation  is  capable  of  most  rapid  progress;  for 
the  advance  of  man  goes  on  with  accelerated  velocity ; 
the  further  he  has  gone,  the  faster  he  goes. 

The  disposition  in  mankind  to  acquire  this  increase 
of  human  development  and  material  power,  I  will  call 
the  instinct  of  progress.  It  exists  in  different  degrees 
in  various  nations  and  races:  some  are  easily  content 
with  a  small  amount  thereof,  and  so  advance  but  slowly  ; 
others  desire  the  most  of  both,  and  press  continually 
forward. 

Of  all  races,  the  Caucasian  has  hitherto  shown  the 
most  of  this  instinct  of  progress,  and,  though  perhaps 
the  youngest  of  all,  has  advanced  furthest  in  the  devel- 


CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  AFFAIRS 

opment  of  the  human  faculties,  and  in  the  acquisition 
of  power  over  the  material  world;  it  has  already  won 
the  most  welfare,  and  now  makes  the  swiftest  progress. 

Of  the  various  families  of  the  Caucasian  race,  the 
Teutonic,  embracing  all  the  Germanic  people  kindred 
to  our  own,  is  now  the  most  remarkable  for  this  instinct 
of  progress.  Accordingly,  in  the  last  four  hundred 
years,  all  the  great  new  steps  of  peaceful  Caucasian 
development  have  been  first  taken  by  the  Teutonic  peo 
ple,  who  now  bear  the  same  relation  to  the  world's 
progress  that  the  Greeks  did  a  thousand  years  before 
Christ,  the  Romans  eight  hundred  years  later,  and  the 
Romanized  Celts  of  France  at  a  day  yet  more  recent. 

Of  the  Teutons,  the  Anglo-Saxons,  or  that  portion 
thereof  settled  in  the  Northern  States  of  America,  have 
got  the  furthest  forward  in  certain  important  forms  of 
welfare,  and  now  advance  the  most  rapidly  in  their  gen 
eral  progress.  With  no  class  of  capitalists  or  scholars 
equal  to  the  men  of  great  estates  and  great  learning1  in 
Europe,  the  whole  mass  of  the  people  have  yet  attained 
the  greatest  material  comfort,  enjoyment  of  natural 
rights,  and  development  of  the  human  faculties.  They 
feel  most  powerfully  the  general  instinct  of  progress, 
and  advance  swiftest  to  future  welfare  and  develop 
ment.  Here  the  bulk  of  the  population  is  Anglo- 
Saxon  ;  but  this  powerful  blood  has  been  enriched  by 
additions  from  divers  other  sources, —  Teutonic  and 
Celtic. 

The  great  forces  which  in  the  last  four  hundred 
years  have  most  powerfully  and  obviously  helped  this 
welfare  and  progress,  may  be  reduced  to  two  marked 
tendencies,  which  I  will  sum  up  in  the  form  of  ideas, 
and  name  the  one  Christianity  and  the  other  Democ 
racy. 


436  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

By  Christianity  I  mean  that  form  of  religion  which 
consists  of  piety  —  the  love  of  God,  and  morality  - 
the  keeping  of  His  laws.  That  is  not  the  Christianity 
of  the  Christian  Church,  nor  of  any  sect ;  it  is  the  ideal 
religion  which  the  human  race  has  been  groping  after, 
if  haply  we  might  find  it.  It  is  yet  only  an  ideal,  ac 
tual  in  no  society. 

By  Democracy  I  mean  government  over  all  the  peo 
ple  by  all  the  people,  and  for  the  sake  of  all.  Of 
course,  it  is  government  according  to  the  natural  law 
of  God,  by  justice,  the  point  common  to  each  man  and 
all  men,  to  each  nation  and  all  mankind,  to  the  human 
race  and  to  God.  In  a  democracy,  the  people  reign 
with  sovereign  power;  their  elected  servants  govern 
with  delegated  trust.  There  is  national  unity  of  ac 
tion,  represented  by  law ;  this  makes  the  nation  one,  a 
whole ;  it  is  the  centripetal  force  of  society.  But  there 
is  also  individual  variety  of  action,  represented  by  the 
personal  freedom  of  the  people  who  ultimately  make 
the  laws;  this  makes  John  John,  and  not  James,  the 
individual,  a  free  person,  discrete  from  all  other  men ; 
this  is  the  centrifugal  force  of  society,  which  counter 
acts  the  excessive  solidification  that  would  else  go  on. 
Thus,  by  justice,  the  one  and  the  many  are  balanced 
together,  as  the  centripetal  and  centrifugal  forces  in 
the  solar  system. 

This  is  not  the  democracy  of  the  parties,  but  it  is 
that  ideal  government,  the  reign  of  righteousness,  the 
kingdom  of  justice,  which  all  noble  hearts  long  for, 
and  labor  to  produce,  the  ideal  whereunto  mankind 
slowly  draws  near.  No  nation  has  yet  come  so  close 
to  it  as  the  people  of  some  of  the  Northern  States,  who 
are  yet  far  beneath  ideals  of  government  now  known, 
that  are  yet  themselves  vastly  inferior  to  others  which 


CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  AFFAIRS        437 

mankind  shall  one  day  voyage  after,  discover,  and  an 
nex  to  human  possession. 

In  this  democracy,  and  the  tendency  towards  it,  two 
things  come  to  all ;  namely,  labor  and  government. 

Labor  for  material  comfort,  the  means  of  use  and 
beauty,  is  the  duty  of  all,  and  not  less  the  right,  and 
practically  the  lot,  of  all;  so  there  is  no  privilege  for 
any,  where  each  has  his  whole  natural  right.  Accord 
ingly,  there  is  no  permanent  and  vicariously  idle  class, 
born  merely  to  enjoy  and  not  create,  who  live  by  the 
unpurchased  toil  of  others ;  and,  accordingly,  there  is 
no  permanent  and  vicariously  working-class,  born 
merely  to  create  and  not  enjoy,  who  toil  only  for  oth 
ers.  There  is  mutuality  of  earning  and  enjoying: 
none  is  compelled  to  work  vicariously  for  another, 
none  allowed  to  rob  others  of  the  natural  fruit  of  their 
toil.  Of  course,  each  works  at  such  calling  as  his  na 
ture  demands :  on  the  mare  liberum,  the  open  sea  of  hu 
man  industry,  every  personal  bark  sails  whither  it  may, 
and  with  such  freight  and  swiftness  as  it  will  or  can. 

Government,  in  social  and  political  affairs,  is  the 
right  of  all,  not  less  their  duty,  and  practically  the 
lot  of  each.  So  there  is  no  privilege  in  politics,  no 
lordly  class  born  to  command  and  not  obey,  no  slavish 
class  born  to  serve  and  not  command:  there  is  mutu 
ality  of  command  and  obedience.  And  as  there  is  no 
compulsory  vicarious  work,  but  each  takes  part  in  the 
labor  of  all,  and  has  his  share  in  the  enjoyment  thereof; 
so  there  is  no  vicarious  government,  but  each  takes  part 
in  the  making  of  laws  and  in  obedience  thereunto. 

Such  is  the  ideal  democracy,  nowhere  made  actual. 

Practically,  labor  and  government  are  the  two  great 
forces  in  the  education  of  mankind.  These  take  the 
youth  where  schools  and  colleges  leave  him,  and  carry 


438  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

him  further  up  to  another  seminary,  where  he  studies 
for  what  honors  he  will,  and  graduates  into  such  de 
grees  as  he  can  attain  to. 

This  sharing  of  labor  and  government  is  the  indis 
pensable  condition  for  human  development ;  for,  if  any 
class  of  men  permanently  withdraws  itself  from  labor, 
first  it  parts  from  its  human  sympathy ;  next  it  becomes 
debauched  in  its  several  powers ;  and  presently  it  loses 
its  masculine  vigor  and  its  feminine  delicacy ;  and  dies, 
at  last,  a  hideous  ruin.  Do  you  doubt  what  I  say? 
Look  then  at  the  Roman  aristocracy  from  two  cen 
turies  before  Christ  to  four  centuries  after  —  at  the 
French  aristocracy  from  Louis  XIII.  to  Louis  XVI. 

If  any  class  of  men  is  withheld  from  government  — 
from  its  share  in  organizing  the  people  into  social,  po 
litical,  and  ecclesiastical  forms,  from  making  and  ex 
ecuting  the  laws  —  then  that  class  loses  its  manhood 
and  womanhood,  dwindles  into  meanness  and  insignifi 
cance,  and  also  must  perish.  For  example,  look  at 
the  populace  of  Rome  from  the  second  century  before 
Christ  to  the  fourth  after ;  look  at  the  miserable  people 
of  Naples  and  Spain,  too  far  gone  ever  to  be  raised 
out  of  the  grave  where  they  are  buried  now ;  look  at 
the  inhabitants  of  Ireland,  whose  only  salvation  con 
sists  in  flight  to  a  new  soil,  where  they  may  have  a 
share  in  political  government,  as  well  as  in  economic 
labor. 

So  much  for  the  definition  of  terms  frequently  to  be 
used,  and  the  statement  of  the  great  principles  which 
lie  at  the  foundation  of  human  progress  and  welfare. 

Now,  in  the  history  of  a  nation,  there  are  always 
two  operating  forces, —  one  positive,  the  other  nega 
tive.  One  I  will  call  the  progressive  force.  It  is  that 
instinct  of  progress  just  named,  with  the  sum  total  of 


CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  AFFAIRS        439 

all  the  excellencies  of  the  people,  their  hopefulness, 
human  sympathy,  virtue,  religion,  piety.  This  is  the 
power  to  advance.  The  other  I  will  call  the  regressive 
force;  that  is,  the  vis  inertice,  the  sluggishness  of  the 
people,  the  sum  total  of  all  the  people's  laziness  and 
despair,  all  the  selfishness  of  a  class,  all  the  vice  and 
anti-religion.  This  is  power  to  retard.  I  do  not 
speak  of  the  conservative  force  which  would  keep,  or 
the  destructive  force  which  would  wastefully  consume, 
but  only  of  those  named.  The  destructive  force  in 
America  is  now  small;  the  conservative,  or  preserva 
tive,  exceeding  great. 

Every  nation  has  somewhat  of  the  progressive  force, 
each  likewise  something  of  the  regressive.  Let  me 
illustrate  this  regressive  force  a  little  further.  You 
sometimes  in  the  country  find  a  thriving,  hardy  family, 
industrious,  temperate,  saving,  thrifty,  up  early  and 
down  late.  By  some  unaccountable  misfortune,  there 
is  born  into  the  family,  and  grows  up  there,  a  lazy  boy. 
He  is  weak  in  the  knees,  drooping  in  the  neck,  limber 
in  the  loins,  and  sluggish  all  over.  He  rises  late  in  the 
morning,  after  he  has  been  called  many  times,  and,  in 
the  dog-days,  comes  down  whilst  his  mother  is  getting 
breakfast,  and  hangs  over  the  fire.  Most  of  you  have 
doubtless  seen  such;  I  have,  to  my  sorrow.  That  is 
one  form  of  the  regressive  force.  He  is  what  the  Bible 
calls  a  heaviness  to  his  mother,  and  a  grief  to  his 
father.  There  is  a  worse  retarding  force  than  this, 
to  wit:  sometimes  a  bad  boy  is  born  into  the  family 
with  head  enough,  but  with  a  devilish  heart;  he  is  a 
malformation  in  respect  to  all  the  higher  faculties, — 
a  destructive  form  of  the  regressive  force.  Now,  a 
nation  may  have  that  regressive  force  in  these  two 
forms, —  the  lazy  retardative,  the  wicked  destructive. 


440  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

Sometimes  this  progressive  force  seems  limited  to  a 
small  class  of  persons, —  men  of  genius,  like  the  He 
brew  prophets,  the  Socratic  philosophers,  the  German 
reformers  of  the  sixteenth  century,  or  the  French 
savants  of  the  eighteenth.  But  it  is  not  likely  it  is 
really  thus  limited ;  for  these  men  of  genius  are  merely 
trees  of  the  common  kind,  rooted  into  the  public  soil, 
but  grown  to  taller  stature  than  the  rest. 

In  the  Northern  States  of  America,  and  also  in  Eng 
land  and  Scotland,  it  is  plain  this  progressive  force  is 
widely  spread  among  the  great  mass  of  the  people, 
who  are  not  only  instinctively,  but  of  set  purpose, 
eager  for  progress ;  that  is,  for  the  increasing  develop 
ment  of  faculties,  and  for  the  consequent  increasing 
power  over  the  material  world,  transforming  it  to  use 
and  beauty.  New  England  is  a  monument  attesting 
this  fact.  But  still  this  force  arrives  to  its  highest 
form  in  men  of  genius.  Here,  in  the  North,  you  may 
find  men  of  money,  men  of  education,  literary  culture, 
and  scientific  skill ;  men  of  talent,  able  to  learn  readily 
what  can  now  be  taught  —  who  do  not  share  this  pro 
gressive  instinct,  whose  will  is  regressive;  but  these  are 
exceptional  men  —  some  maimed  by  accident,  others 
impotent  from  their  mother's  womb ;  whom  no  Peter 
and  John  could  make  otherwise  than  halt  and  lame. 
But  all  the  men  of  genius  —  aboriginal  power  of  sight, 
ability  to  create,  to  know  and  teach  what  none  learned 
before  —  are  on  the  side  of  this  progressive  force.  In 
all  the  Northern  States,  I  know  but  one  exception 
among  the  men  of  politics,  science,  art,  letters,  or  re 
ligion.  Even  in  his  cradle,  the  Northern  genius 
strangles  the  regressive  snakes  of  fogydom.  Still, 
these  men  of  genius  are  not  the  cause  of  the  progres 
sive  force,  only  expressions  of  it;  not  its  exclusive 


CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  AFFAIRS        441 

depositaries.  They  are  the  thunder  and  lightning,  per 
haps  the  rain,  out  of  the  cloud,  sparks  from  the  elec 
tric  charge :  they  are  not  the  cloud ;  they  did  not  make 
it.  Of  course,  where  the  cloud  is  fullest  of  the  fire 
of  heaven,  there  is  the  reddest  lightning,  the  heaviest 
thunder,  and  the  most  abounding  rain.  Still,  the  men 
of  genius  did  not  make  the  progressive  spirit  of  the 
North;  they  but  express  and  help  to  educate  that 
force. 

In  the  North,  those  two  educational  factors,  labor 
and  government,  are  widely  diffused :  more  persons  par 
take  of  each  than  anywhere  else  in  the  world.  So  there 
is  no  exclusive,  permanent  servile  class  —  none  that 
does  all  the  work,  and  enjoys  none  of  the  results:  there 
is  no  exclusive  and  permanent  ruling  class ;  all  are  mas 
ters,  all  servants ;  all  command,  and  all  obey. 

So  much  for  the  progressive  force. 

The  regressive  force  may  consist  in  the  general 
sluggishness  of  the  whole  mass  of  the  people:  then  it 
will  be  either  an  ethnological  misfortune,  which  be 
longs  to  the  constitution  of  the  race  —  and  I  am  sorry 
to  say  that  the  Africans  share  that  in  the  largest  de 
gree,  and,  accordingly,  have  advanced  the  least  of  any 
of  the  races  —  or  else  an  historic  accident  entailed  on 
them  by  oppression ;  and  that  is  the  case  also  with  a 
large  portion  of  the  Africans  in  America,  who  have  a 
double  misfortune  —  that  of  ethnologic  nature  and  his 
toric  position.  But  among  the  Caucasians,  especially 
among  the  Teutons,  this  regressive  force  is  chiefly 
lodged  in  certain  classes  of  men,  who  are  exceptional 
to  the  mass  of  the  people,  by  an  accidental  position 
separated  therefrom,  and  possessed  of  power  thereover, 
which  they  use  for  their  own  selfish  advantage,  and 
against  the  interest  of  the  people.  They  commonly 


442  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

aim  at  two  things  —  to  shun  all  the  labor,  and  to  pos 
sess  all  the  government. 

This  exceptional  position  was  either  the  accidental 
attainment  of  the  individual,  or  else  a  trust  thereto 
delegated  from  the  people;  but  the  occupiers  of  the 
trust  considered  it  at  length  as  their  natural,  personal 
right,  and  so  held  to  it  as  a  finality,  and  asked  man 
kind  to  stop  the  human  march  in  order  that  they  might 
rejoice  in  their  special  occupation.  Thus  the  fletchers 
of  the  fourteenth  century,  who  got  their  bread  by  mak 
ing  bows  and  arrows,  opposed  the  use  of  gunpowder 
and  cannon ;  thus  the  scribes  of  the  fifteenth  century 
opposed  printing,  and  said  Dr.  Faustus  was  "  pos 
sessed  by  the  devil."  In  England,  two  hundred  years 
ago,  every  top-sawyer  resisted  the  use  of  saw-mills  to 
cut  logs  into  boards,  and  wanted  to  draw  off  the  water 
from  the  ponds.  Forty  years  ago,  the  hand-weaver 
of  England  opposed  power-looms.  In  1840,  the  wor 
shipful  company  of  ass-drivers  in  Italy  begged  the 
pope  of  Rome  not  to  allow  a  single  railroad  in  his 
territory,  because  it  would  injure  their  property  in 
vested  in  packsaddles  and  jackasses.  The  pope  con 
sented,  and  no  steam-engine  dared  to  scream  and  whis 
tle  in  the  papal  States.  In  Boston,  twenty  years  ago, 
the  Irishmen  objected  to  steam  pile-drivers,  and  broke 
them  to  pieces ;  just  now,  the  stevedores  of  Boston  in 
sist  that  ships  shall  not  be  unladen  by  horses  or  steam- 
power,  but  that  a  man,  who  yet  has  a  head,  shall  live 
only  by  the  great  muscles  in  his  arms ;  that  all  mer 
chandise  shall  be  taken  out  of  ships  by  an  Irishman 
hanging  at  the  end  of  a  rope.  All  these  men  consider 
that  their  exceptional  position  and  accidental  business 
is  a  finality  of  human  history,  a  natural  right,  which 
the  top-sawyer,  the  scribe,  and  the  others  have  to  stop 


CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  AFFAIRS        443 

mankind.  The  stevedore  and  hand-loom  weaver  must 
have  no  competitors  in  the  labor-market;  the  steam- 
engine  must  be  shoved  off  the  track,  in  order  that  the 
donkey  may  have  the  whole  country  wherein  to  bray 
and  wheeze. 

In  Europe,  at  this  day,  the  regressive  force  is  lodged 
chiefly  in  the  twofold  aristocracy  which  exists  there, 
ecclesiastical  and  political.  In  the  sixteenth  century, 
mankind,  and  especially  the  Teutonic  family,  longed 
to  have  more  Christianity:  the  priestly  class,  with  the 
pope  at  their  head,  refused,  hewed  the  people  to  pieces, 
burnt  them  to  ashes  at  Madrid  and  Oxford.  The 
priest  stood  between  the  people  and  the  Bible,  and  said, 
u  The  word  of  God  belongs  to  us :  it  is  for  the  priests 
only,  not  for  you,  you  infidels  ;  down  with  you !  "  He 
counted  his  stand  as  the  stopping-place  of  mankind: 
the  human  race  must  not  go  an  inch  further  —  he 
would  kill  all  that  tried.  The  result  attained  was  a 
finality.  So  the  thinker  must  be  burned  alive,  that 
the  ass-driver  might  have  the  whole  world  to  snap  his 
fingers  in  and  cough  to  his  donkey !  Even  now  the 
same  class  of  men  repeat  the  old  experiment;  and,  in 
Italy,  Spain,  and  Spanish  America,  the  regressive 
power  carries  the  day. 

In  this  century,  when  the  people  of  Europe  wished 
to  move  on  a  little  nearer  to  democracy  than  before, 
the  political  class  of  aristocrats  refused  to  suffer  it; 
they  put  men  of  political  genius  in  jail,  or  hung  them. 
Kossuth  and  Mazzini  were  lucky  men  to  escape  to  a 
foreign  land;  thousands  fled  to  America.  In  Europe, 
at  present,  and  especially  on  the  continent,  this  regres 
sive  power  carries  the  day,  and  the  progressive  force 
is  held  down.  For  priests,  kings,  and  nobles,  inherit 
ing  a  position  which  was  once  the  highest  that  man- 


444  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

kind  had  attained  to,  and  then  taking  it  as  a  trust,  now 
count  it  a  right  of  their  own,  a  finality  of  the  human 
race,  the  end  of  man's  progress. 

When  a  nation  permanently  consents  to  this  tri 
umph  of  the  regressive  over  the  progressive  force,  al 
lows  one  class  to  do  all  the  government  and  shun  all 
the  labor,  it  is  presently  all  over  with  that  nation. 
Look  at  Italy,  with  Rome  and  Naples ;  at  Spain,  which 
is  too  far  gone  ever  to  be  galvanized  into  life.  See 
what  already  takes  place  in  France,  where  the  son  of 
the  nephew  has  just  been  born,  and  the  little  baby  is 
recognized  as  emperor.  Look  at  an  election-day  in 
Massachusetts,  where  the  people  choose  one  of  them 
selves  to  be  their  temporary  governor,  responsible  to 
them,  swearing  him  on  their  statute-book:  compare 
that  with  the  preparation  which  Napoleon  the  Little 
made  to  anticipate  the  birth  of  Napoleon  the  Least ! 
Why,  the  garments  got  ready  for  this  equivocal  baby 
have  already  cost  more  than  the  clothes  of  all  our 
Presidents  since  "  a  young  buckskin  taught  a  British 
general  the  art  of  fighting."  Eighty  thousand  dol 
lars  is  decreed  to  pay  for  baptizing  this  imperial 
bantling.  If  twice  that  sum  could  christen  the  father, 
it  might  not  be  ill  spent,  if  thereto  decreed.  Look  at 
New  England,  and  then  at  Spain,  to  see  the  odds  be 
tween  a  people  that  has  the  progressive  force  upper 
most,  and  a  nation  where  the  regressive  force  has  trod 
the  people  down,  and  become,  as  it  must,  destructive. 
The  Romanic  nations  of  Italy  and  Spain,  and  the 
Romanized  Celts  of  France,  consent  to  a  despotism 
which  puts  all  the  labor  on  the  people,  and  takes  all  the 
government  from  them:  they  easily  enough  accept  the 
rule  of  the  political  and  ecclesiastical  aristocracy.  But 
the  Teutons,  especially  the  Saxon  Teutons,  and,  above 


CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  AFFAIRS        445 

all  others,  those  in  the  Northern  States  of  America, 
with  their  immense  love  of  individual  liberty,  hate  des 
potism,  either  political  or  ecclesiastical.  They  perpet 
ually  demand  more  Christianity  and  democracy ;  that 
each  shall  do  his  own  work,  and  rejoice  in  its  result; 
that  each  shall  have  his  share  in  the  government  of  all. 
The  women,  long  excluded  from  this  latter  right,  now 
claim,  and  will  at  length,  little  by  little,  gain  it.  When 
all  thus  share  the  burdens  and  the  j  oys  of  life,  there  is 
no  class  of  men  compelled  by  their  position  to  hate 
society :  so  law  and  order  prevail  with  ease ;  each  keeps 
step  with  all,  nor  wishes  to  stay  the  march;  property 
is  secure,  the  government  popular.  But  when  one 
class  does  all  the  ruling,  and  forces  all  the  toil  on  an 
other  class,  nothing  is  certain  but  trouble  and  violence. 
Thus,  in  San  Domingo,  red  rebellion  scoured  black 
despotism  out  of  the  land,  but  with  blood.  If  a  gov 
ernment,  like  a  pyramid,  be  wide  at  the  bottom,  it  takes 
little  to  hold  it  up. 

So  much  for  the  regressive  force. 

In  the  United  States  we  have  two  peoples  in  one  na 
tion,  similar  in  origin,  united  in  their  history,  but  for 
the  last  two  generations  so  diverse  in  their  institutions, 
their  mode  of  life,  their  social  and  political  aims,  that 
now  they  have  become  exceedingly  unlike,  even  alien 
and  hostile ;  for,  though  both  the  stems  grow  out  from 
the  same  ethnologic  root,  one  of  them  has  caught  such 
a  mildew  from  the  ground  it  hangs  over,  and  the  other 
trees  it  mixes  its  boughs  among,  that  its  fruit  has  be 
come  "  peculiar,"  and  not  like  the  native  produce  of 
the  sister  trunk.  One  of  these  I  will  call  the  Northern 
States,  the  other  the  Southern  States.  At  present, 
there  is  a  governmental  bond  put  round  both,  which 
holds  them  together ;  but  no  moral  union  makes  the 


446  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

two  one.  There  is  no  unity  of  idea  between  them.  A 
word  of  each. 

In  the  Northern  States  we  have  a  population  fifteen 
millions  strong,  mainly  of  Anglo-Saxon  origin,  but 
early  crossed  with  other  Teutonic  blood  —  Dutch,  Ger 
man,  Scandinavian  —  which  bettered  the  stock.  Of 
late,  numerous  Celts  have  been  added  to  the  mixture, 
but  so  recently  that  no  considerable  influence  yet  ap 
pears  in  the  collective  character,  ideas,  or  institutions 
of  the  North.  A  hundred  years  hence,  the  ethnologic 
fruits  of  this  other  seed  will  show  themselves. 

These  Northern  Saxons,  moreover,  are  mainly  de 
scended  from  men  who  fled  from  Europe  because  they 
had  ideas,  at  least  sentiments,  of  Christianity  and  de 
mocracy  which  could  not  be  carried  out  at  home. 
They  are  born  of  Puritan  pilgrims,  who  were  the  most 
progressive  portion  of  the  most  progressive  people,  of 
the  most  progressive  stock,  in  all  Christendom.  They 
came  to  America,  not  for  ease,  honor,  money,  or  love 
of  adventure,  but  for  conscience'  sake,  for  the  sake 
of  their  Christianity  and  their  democracy.  Such  men 
founded  the  chief  Northern  colonies  and  institutions, 
and  have  controlled  the  doctrines  and  the  development 
thereof  to  a  great  degree. 

We  see  the  result  of  such  parentage :  more  than  all 
other  nations  of  the  earth,  the  North  has  cut  loose  from 
the  evil  of  the  past,  and  set  its  face  towards  the  future. 
At  one  extreme,  it  has  no  lordly  class,  ecclesiastical  or 
political,  exclusively  and  permanently  to  shun  labor 
and  monopolize  government,  vicariously  to  enjoy  the 
result  of  work,  vicariously  to  rule;  and,  at  the  other 
extreme,  there  is  no  class  slavishly  and  unwillingly  to 
do  the  work,  and  have  none  of  its  rewards;  to  suffer 
all  the  obedience,  and  enjoy  none  of  the  command. 


CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  AFFAIRS        447 

No  class  is  permanent,  highest  or  lowest.  The  North 
ern  States  are  progressively  Christian,  also  progres 
sively  democratic,  in  the  sense  just  given  of  Chris 
tianity  and  democracy.  No  people  on  earth  has  such 
material  comfort,  such  enjoyment  of  natural  rights  of 
body  and  spirit  already  possessed,  such  general  devel 
opment  of  the  human  faculties.  But  the  attainment 
does  not  satisfy  us;  for  we  share  this  instinct  of 
progress  to  such  a  degree,  that  no  achievement  will 
content  us.  Be  the  present  harvest  never  so  rich,  our 
song  is  — 

"  To-morrow  to  fresh  woods  and  pastures  new. 

No  nation  has  such  love  of  liberty,  such  individual 
variety  of  action,  or  such  national  unity  of  action ; 
nowhere  is  such  respect  for  law;  nowhere  is  property 
so  secure,  life  so  safe,  and  the  individual  so  little  dis 
turbed.  And,  with  all  this,  we  are  not  at  all  destruc 
tive,  but  eager  to  create,  and  patient  to  preserve.  The 
first  thing  which  a  Northern  man  lays  hold  of  is  a 
working-tool,  an  ax,  or  a  plough;  the  last  thing  he 
takes  in  hand  is  a  fighting-tool,  a  bowie-knife,  a  rifle: 
he  never  touches  that  till  he  is  driven  to  the  last  ex 
tremity.  He  loves  to  organize  productive  industry, 
not  war. 

So  much  for  the  nation  North. 

Next,  there  are  the  Southern  States  ten  millions  in 
population.  There  also  the  original  germ  was  Anglo- 
Saxon,  to  which  additions  were  made  from  other  stocks, 
Teutonic  and  Celtic,  though  in  a  smaller  degree : 
France  and  Spain  added  more  largely  to  the  mixture. 
But  what  has  most  affected  the  ethnological  character 
of  the  South  is  the  African  element.  There  are  three 
and  a  half  millions  of  men  in  the  Southern  States,  of 


448  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

African  origin,  whereof  half  a  million  are  (acknowl 
edged)  mulattoes,  African  Caucasians;  but  those  mon 
umental  half-breeds  are  much  more  numerous  than  the 
census  dares  confess. 

This  is  not  the  only  human  difference  between  the 
North  and  the  South.  While  the  Saxons,  who  orig 
inally  came  to  the  North,  and  have  since  controlled  its 
institutions  and  ideas,  were  mainly  pilgrims,  who, 
driven  by  persecution,  fled  hither  for  the  sake  of  estab 
lishing  democracy  and  Christianity  —  the  foremost 
people  in  an  age  of  movement,  when  revolution  shook 
the  whole  Teutonic  world,  bringing  the  most  Chris 
tian  and  democratic  institutions  and  ideas  of  their  age, 
and  developing  them  to  forms  still  more  human  and 
progressive  —  the  settlers  of  the  South  were  adventur 
ers,  who  came  to  America  to  mend  their  fortunes,  for 
the  sake  of  money,  ease,  honor,  love  of  change. 
Whilst,  subsequently,  emigrants  came  from  Europe  to 
the  North  of  their  own  accord,  shared  the  Northern 
labor  and  government,  partook  of  its  Christianity  and 
democracy,  partook  of  its  best  influences,  and  soon 
mingled  their  blood  in  the  great  stream  of  Northern 
population:  many  persons  from  Africa  were  forced  to 
emigrate  to  the  South,  and,  by  legal  violence,  com 
pelled  to  more  than  their  share  of  labor,  driven  from 
all  share  in  the  government,  branded  as  inferior,  and 
mingled  with  the  Caucasian  population  only  in  illicit 
lust  —  which  bastardized  its  own  sons  and  daughters 
—  and  were  made  subordinate  to  the  owners'  lash. 
While  the  North,  from  1620  to  1856,  has  aimed  to 
spread  education  over  all  the  land,  and  facilitate  the 
acquisition  of  property  by  the  individual,  and  prevent 
its  entailment  in  families,  or  its  excessive  accumulation 
by  transient  corporations,  the  South  has  always  en- 


CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  AFFAIRS        449 

deavored  to  limit  education,  making  it  the  exclusive 
monopoly  of  the  few  —  who  yet  learned  not  much  — 
and  now  makes  it  a  State  prison  offense  to  teach  the 
laboring  class  to  read  and  write:  it  aims  to  condense 
money  into  large  sums,  permanently  held,  if  not  in 
families,  at  least  in  a  class.  Thus,  at  one  extreme,  the 
South  had  formed  a  permanently  idle  and  lordly  class, 
who  shun  labor  and  monopolize  government. 

The  South  culminates  in  Virginia  and  South  Caro 
lina,  which  bear  the  same  relation  to  the  slave  States 
that  New  England  does  to  the  free  States;  that  is, 
they  are  the  mother-city  of  population,  ideas,  institu 
tions,  and  character.  As  I  just  said,  Christendom 
cannot  boast  a  population  in  any  other  country  where 
there  are  fifteen  millions  of  men  so  nobly  developed  as 
the  fifteen  millions  of  the  North ;  so  far  advanced  in 
Christianity  and  democracy ;  with  so  much  material 
comfort,  enjoyment  of  natural  rights,  and  develop 
ment  of  natural  powers.  Compare  New  England  with 
Old  England,  Scotland,  France,  Saxony,  Belgium, 
Prussia,  any  of  the  foremost  nations  of  Europe,  and 
you  see  that  it  is  so.  But  take  the  ten  millions  of  the 
South,  and  see  what  they  are :  nowhere  in  Europe,  north 
of  Turkey  and  west  of  Russia,  can  you  find  ten  mil 
lions  of  contiguous  men  who  have  so  low  a  develop 
ment,  intellectual,  moral,  affectional,  and  religious,  as 
the  ten  millions  of  the  slave  States ;  nowhere  can  you 
find  Caucasians  or  any  other  people  in  Western  Europe 
so  slightly  advanced  above  the  savage.  Three  and  a 
quarter  millions  are  actual  slaves.  Take  the  States  of 
Virginia  and  South  Carolina,  in  which  the  South  comes 
to  its  flower:  there  are  1,170,000  whites,  920,000  col 
ored,  whereof  860,000  are  slaves ;  that  is  to  say,  out 

of  two  millions,  more  than  one-third  are  only  human 
XIII— 29 


450  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

property,  not  counted  as  human  persons.  In  South 
Carolina,  out  of  a  hundred  native  whites  over  twenty 
years  of  age,  there  are  seven  who  cannot  read  the  name 
PIERCE,  the  political  lord  they  worship ;  in  Virginia, 
out  of  a  hundred  native  whites  over  twenty  years,  there 
are  nine  who  cannot  write  the  word  SLAVE,  nor  spell  it 
after  it  is  written  all  over  their  State ;  whereas, 
in  Massachusetts,  out  of  four  hundred  persons  over 
twenty,  there  is  only  one  man  who  cannot  write,  with 
his  own  hand,  LIBERTY  FOR  ALL  MEN  NOW  AND  FOR 
EVER! 

Take  the  two  million  population  of  Virginia  and 
South  Carolina :  there  is  no  people  in  Western  Europe 
so  little  advanced  as  they ;  and,  in  all  Christendom, 
there  are  only  two  nations  or  collections  of  men  who 
stand  on  the  same  level  —  the  Russian  Empire  and 
Spanish  America.  Behold  the  reason  for  the  phe 
nomenon  which  struck  many  with  surprise, —  that 
South  Carolina  and  Virginia,  in  their  politics,  have  re 
cently  sympathized  with  Russia  and  Brazil.  Birds  of 
a  feather  flock  together,  like  consorting  with  like. 

Here,  then,  are  these  two  nations,  alike  in  their 
ethnological  origin,  joint  in  their  history,  now  ut 
terly  diverse  and  antagonistic  in  disposition  and  aim. 
The  North  has  organized  freedom,  and  seeks  to  extend 
it ;  the  South,  bondage,  and  aims  to  spread  that.  The 
North  is  progressively  Christian  and  democratic ;  while 
the  South  is  progressively  anti-Christian  and  undemo 
cratic.  First,  only  the  Southern  measures  were  anti- 
Christian  and  undemocratic;  now  also  its  principles. 
It  lays  down  anti-Christianity  and  anti-democracy  as 
the  only  theory  of  religion  and  politics.  In  New  Eng 
land,  man  is  put  before  property,  the  human  substance 
above  the  material  accident;  in  Virginia  and  South 


CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  AFFAIRS        451 

Carolina,  property  is  put  before  man,  the  material  ac 
cident  before  the  human  substance  itself;  and,  of  all 
property  that  which  is  most  valued  and  most  carefully 
preserved,  though  most  "  aristocratic  "  and  sacred,  is 
property  in  the  bodies  of  men. 

That  is  the  odds  between  the  North  and  the  South. 

Now,  the  progressive  power  of  America  is  lodged 
chiefly  in  the  North,  where  it  is  diffused  almost  uni 
versally  amongst  the  people,  but  most  conspicuously 
comes  to  light  in  the  men  of  genius.  Accordingly, 
every  man  of  poetic  or  scientific  genius  in  the  North  is 
an  anti-slavery  man ;  every  preacher  with  any  spark 
of  Christian  genius  in  him  is  a  progressive  man  and 
hostile  to  slavery. 

The  regressive  power  is  lodged  chiefly  at  the  South, 
where  it  is  considerably  diffused  among  the  people. 
That  wide  diffusion  comes  partly  from  the  ethnologic 
sluggishness  of  the  African  element  mixed  in  with  the 
population,  but  still  more  from  the  degradation  inci 
dent  to  a  people  who  have  long  sat  under  tyrannical 
masters.  It  is  this  which  has  debased  the  Caucasian 
of  Virginia,  Tennessee,  North  and  South  Carolina. 

But  as  the  progressive  force  of  the  North  comes 
clearest  to  light  in  the  men  of  genius,  so  the  regressive 
force  at  the  South  is  most  shown  in  the  men  of  emi 
nent  ability,  ecclesiastical  and  political,  of  whom  not  a 
single  man  is  publicly  progressive  in  Christianity  or 
democracy.  Compare  the  spirit  of  the  great  news 
papers  of  the  South,  the  Richmond  Examiner,  the 
Charleston  Mercury,  with  those  of  the  North,  the  New 
York  Tribune,  the  Evening  Post;  compare  the  South 
ern  politicians,  the  Masons  and  Toombses,  with  the 
Sewards  and  Chases  of  the  North.  See  the  odds  be 
tween  the  mass  of  the  people  at  the  North  and  the 


452  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

South ;  between  the  eminent  genius,  all  of  which  at  the 
North  is  progressive,  but  all  of  which  at  the  South 
turns  its  back  on  human  progress,  and  would  leave 
humanity  behind.  There  is  the  difference. 

This  regressive  force  accepts  slavery  as  the  Dagon 
of  its  idolatry,  its  "  peculiar  institution ; "  and  slavery 
is  to  the  South  what  the  book  of  Mormon  or  the  car  of 
Juggernaut  is  to  its  worshipers.  This  institution  is  so 
iniquitous  and  base,  that  in  Christian  Europe,  all  the 
Teutonic  nations  have  swept  it  away  ;  and  all  the  Celtic, 
all  the  Romanic  nations,  even  the  inhabitants  of  Spain, 
have  trodden  bondage  under  their  feet.  Yes,  the 
Ugrians  have  driven  out  such  slavery  from  Hungary, 
from  Livonia,  from  Lapland  itself;  and,  of  all  parts 
of  Europe,  Russia  and  Turkey  alone  still  keep  the 
unclean  thing;  but  even  there  it  is  progressively  di 
minishing.  As  a  measure,  it  is  felt  to  be  exceptional, 
and  publicly  denounced;  as  a  principle,  no  man  de 
fends  it:  it  is  there  as  a  fact  without  a  theory.  Only 
two  tribes  in  Christendom  yet  hold  to  the  theory  of 
this  unholy  thing, —  Spanish  America  and  the  slave 
part  of  Saxon  America,  the  two  Barbary  States  of  the 
New  World. 

All  the  regressive  power  of  Christendom  gathers 
about  American  slavery,  which  is  the  stone  of  stum 
bling,  the  rock  of  offense  in  the  world's  progress. 

Slavery  is  the  great  obstacle  to  the  present  welfare 
and  future  progress  of  the  South  itself.  It  prevents 
the  mass  of  the  Southern  people  from  the  possession 
of  material  comfort,  use  and  beauty;  from  the  en 
joyment  of  their  natural  rights;  and  also,  for  the  fu 
ture,  it  hinders  them  from  the  increasing  development 
of  their  natural  faculties,  and  the  consequent  increas 
ing  acquisition  of  power  over  the  material  world.  It 


CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  AFFAIRS        453 

hinders  Christianity  and  Democracy,  which  it  would 
destroy,  or  else  itself  must  thereby  be  brought  to  the 
ground.  It  shuts  the  mass  of  the  people  from  their 
share  of  the  government  of  society,  forces  many  to  un 
natural  and  vicarious  labor,  and  robs  them  of  the  fruit 
of  their  toil.  Thus  it  is  the  great  obstacle  alike  to 
present  welfare  and  future  development. 

The  headquarters  of  this  regressive  force  are  at  the 
South,  where  its  avowed  organization  and  its  institu 
tions  may  be  found.  At  the  North  it  has  three  classes 
of  allies.  Here  they  are :  — 

1.  The  first  class  is  of  base  men,  such  as  are  some 
what  inhuman  by  birth;  men  organized  for  cruelty, 
as  fools  for  folly,  idiotic  in  their  conscience  and  heart 
and  soul.  If  there  had  been  no  "  inherited  sin  "  up 
to  last  night,  these  men  would  have  "  originated  "  it 
the  first  thing  this  morning;  if  Adam  had  had  no 
"  fall,"  and  the  ground  did  not  incline  downward  any 
where,  they  would  dig  a  pit  on  their  own  account,  and 
leap  down  headlong  of  their  own  accord.  These  men 
are  aboriginal  kidnappers,  and  grow  up  amid  the  filth 
of  great  towns,  sweltering  in  the  gutters  of  the  metro 
politan  pavement  at  Cincinnati,  Philadelphia,  New 
York.  Nay,  you  find  them  even  at  Boston,  lurking 
in  some  office,  prowling  about  the  court-house,  sneak 
ing  into  alleys,  barking  in  the  newspapers,  to  let  their 
masters  know  their  whereabouts,  turning  up  their 
noses  in  the  streets,  snuffing  after  some  victim  as 
the  wind  blows  from  Virginia  or  Georgia,  and  gen 
erally  seeking  whom  they  may  devour.  There  are 
"  earthly,  sensual,  devilish."  For  the  honor  of  hu 
manity,  this  class  of  men  is  exceedingly  small,  and, 
like  other  poisonous  vermin,  commonly  bears  its  warn 
ing  on  its  face. 


454  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

2.  The  next  class  is  of  mean  men,  of  large  acquisi 
tiveness,  or  else  a  great  love  of  approbation,  little  con 
science,  little  affection,  and  only  just  religion  enough 
to   swear   by.     These   men   you    can   buy    with    office, 
honor,  money,  or  with  a  red  coat  and  a  fife  and  drum. 
There  are  a  great  many  such  persons;  you  find  them 
in  many  places ;  and,  for  the  disgrace  of  my  own  pro 
fession,  I  am  sorry  to  say  they  are  sometimes  in  the 
pulpit,   taking   a    South-side   view    of   all   manner   of 
tyranny,  volunteering  to  send  their  mothers  into  bond 
age,  and  denying  the  higher  law  of  God. 

3.  The  third  class  is  of  ignorant  men,  who  know  no 
better,  but  may  be  instructed. 

At  the  South,  this  regressive  force  is  thus  distributed : 
-  ( 1 )  There  are  three  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
slaveholders,  who,  with  their  families,  make  up  a  pop 
ulation  of  a  million  and  three-quarters;  (2)  There  are 
four  and  three-quarter  millions  of  non-slaveholders ; 
and  (3)  Three  and  a  half  millions  of  slaves.  A  word 
of  each. 

1.  First,  of  the  slaveholders.  Slavery  makes  them 
rich :  they  own  the  greater  part  of  the  land,  and  all  the 
slaves,  and  control  the  greater  part  of  the  colored  or 
white  laboring  population.  Slavery  is  a  peculiar  curse 
to  the  South  in  general,  but  a  peculiar  comfort  to  the 
slaveholders.  They  monopolize  the  education,  own 
the  wealth,  have  all  the  political  power  of  the  South  — 
are  the  "  aristocracy."  But,  since  the  American  Revo 
lution,  I  think  this  class  has  not  born  and  bred  a  single 
man  who  has  made  any  valuable  contribution  to  the  art, 
science,  literature,  morals,  or  religion  of  the  American 
people.  Marshall's  "  Life  of  Washington  "  is  the  only 
great  literary  work  of  the  South ;  its  hero  was  born  in 
1732,  its  author  in  1755;  and  both  Washington  the 


CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  AFFAIRS        455 

hero,  and  Marshall  the  writer,  at  their  death,  abjured 
the  "  peculiar  institution  "  of  the  South. 

The  Southern  "  aristocracy  "  rears  two  things  — 
negro  slaves,  of  which  it  is  often  the  father,  and  re 
gressive  politicians,  who  make  the  institutions  to  keep 
the  slaves  in  bondage  for  ever,  shutting  them  out  from 
Christianity  and  democracy.  Behold  the  "  aristoc 
racy  "  of  the  South !  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know 
them.  Of  the  general  morals  of  this  class  I  need  not 
speak :  "  the  dark  places  of  the  earth  are  full  of  the 
habitations  of  cruelty."  Since  the  1st  of  January, 
they  have  burned  four  negroes  alive,  as  a  joyous  spec 
tacle  and  "  act  of  faith ; "  a  sort  of  profession  of 
Christianity,  like  the  more  ceremonious  autos-da-fe  of 
their  Spanish  prototypes.  Yet  among  the  slave 
holders  are  noble  men;  some  who,  but  for  their  sur 
roundings,  would  have  stood  with  those  eminent  in 
talent,  station,  and  in  service,  too,  the  forerunners  of 
human  progress.  Blame  them  for  their  wrong,  pity 
them  for  the  misfortune  which  they  suffer.  Yet  let 
me  do  the  South  no  injustice.  Her  three  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  slaveholders  have  ruled  the  nation  for 
sixty  years ;  her  politicians  have  beat  the  North  in  all 
great  battles. 

Now,  we  commonly  judge  the  South  by  the  slave 
holders.  This  is  wrong:  it  is  like  measuring  England 
by  her  gentry,  France  and  Germany  by  their  men  of 
science  and  letters,  Italy  by  her  priests.  You  shall 
judge  what  the  whole  mass  of  the  people  are  when  the 
"  aristocracy,"  the  picked  men,  are  of  that  stamp. 

2.  Next  are  the  non-slaveholders,  four  and  three- 
quarter  millions  of  men.  Some  of  these  are  noble  men, 
with  property  in  land  and  goods,  with  some  intelli 
gence;  but,  as  a  class,  they  are  both  necessitous  and 


456  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

illiterate,  with  small  political  power.  They  are  cursed 
by  slavery,  which  they  yet  defend;  for  it  makes  labor 
a  disgrace,  and,  if  poor,  puts  them  on  the  same  level 
with  the  slave  himself.  Slavery  hinders  their  develop 
ment  in  respect  to  property,  intellectual  culture,  and 
manly  character ;  yet,  as  a  whole,  they  are  too  ignorant 
to  understand  the  cause  v/hich  keeps  them  down.  The 
morals  of  this  class  are  exceedingly  low:  it  abounds  in 
murders,  and  is  full  of  cruelty  towards  its  victims. 
Nay,  where  else  in  Christendom,  save  Spanish  America, 
is  the  Caucasian  found  to  take  delight  in  burning  his 
brother  with  a  slow  fire,  for  his  own  sport,  and  to 
please  a  licentious  mob? 

3.  The  third  class  consists  of  the  slaves  themselves, 
of  whom  I  need  say  only  this  —  that  public  opinion 
and  the  law,  which  is  only  the  thunder  from  that  cloud, 
keep  them  at  labor  and  from  government,  from  Chris 
tianity  and  democracy,  from  all  the  welfare  and  de 
velopment  of  the  age,  and  seek  to  crush  out  the  in 
stinct  of  progress  from  the  very  nature  of  the  victims. 
The  slave  has  no  personal  rights,  ecclesiastical,  po 
litical,  social,  economical,  individual ;  no  right  to  prop 
erty  —  a  human  accident ;  none  to  his  body  or  soul  — 
the  substance  of  humanity  itself. 

But  I  fear  you  do  not  yet  quite  understand  the  dif 
ference  between  the  regressive  force  of  slavery  at  the 
South,  and  the  progressive  force  of  freedom  at  the 
North.  Therefore,  to  see  in  noonday  light  the  effect 
of  each  on  the  present  welfare  and  the  future  progress 
of  a  people,  compare  an  old  typical  slave  State  with 
an  old  typical  free  State,  and  then  compare  a  new 
slave  State  with  a  new  free  State. 

1.  South  Carolina  contains  29,385  square  miles  of 
land;  Connecticut,  4,674.  In  1850,  South  Carolina 


CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  AFFAIRS        457 

had  668,507  inhabitants,  whereof  283,523  were  free, 
and  384,984  slaves;  while  Connecticut  had  370,792 
inhabitants,  all  free. 

The  government  value  of  all  the  land  in  South  Caro 
lina  was  $5.08  an  acre;  in  Connecticut  it  was  $30.50 
the  acre.  All  the  farms  in  South  Carolina  contained 
16,217,700  acres,  and  were  worth  $82,431,684;  while 
the  farms  of  Connecticut  were  worth  $72,726,422, 
though  they  contained  only  2,383,879  acres.  Thus 
slavery  and  freedom  affect  the  value  of  land  in  the  old 
States. 

In  1850,  South  Carolina  had  340  miles  of  railroad; 
and  Connecticut  547,  on  a  territory  not  equal  to  one- 
sixth  of  South  Carolina.  In  1855,  South  Carolina 
had  $11,500,000  in  railroads;  Connecticut  had  then 
$20,000,000. 

The  shipping  of  South  Carolina  amounts  to  36,000 
tons;  in  Connecticut,  to  125,000,  though  she  is  not 
advantageously  situated  for  navigation. 

The  value  of  the  real  and  personal  property  in 
South  Carolina,  in  1850,  was  estimated  by  the  Federal 
Government  at  $288,257,694.  This  includes  the  value 
of  all  the  slaves,  who,  at  $400  apiece,  amount  to 
$153,993,600.  Subtracting  this  sum,  which  is  neither 
property  in  land  nor  things,  but  wholly  unreal  and 
fictitious,  there  remains  $134,264,094  as  the  entire 
property  of  the  great  slave  State;  while  the  total  val 
uation  of  the  land  and  things  in  Connecticut,  in  1850, 
was  $155,707,980.  In  other  words,  in  South  Caro 
lina,  670,000  persons,  with  30,000  square  miles  of 
land,  are  worth  $134,000,000;  while  in  Connecticut, 
370,000  men,  with  only  4,600  square  miles  of  land, 
are  worth  $156,000,000.  Thus  do  slavery  and  free 
dom  affect  the  general  wealth  of  the  people  in  the 
old  States. 


458  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

In  1850,  South  Carolina  had  365,026  persons  under 
twenty  years  of  age;  her  whole  number  of  pupils,  at 
schools,  academies,  and  colleges,  was  40,373.  Con 
necticut  had  only  157,146  persons  of  that  age,  but 
83,697  at  school  and  college.  Will  you  say  it  is  of 
no  consequence  whether  the  colored  child  is  educated 
or  not?  Then  remember  that  South  Carolina  had 
149,322  white  children,  and  only  sent  40,373  of  them 
to  school  at  all  in  that  year;  while,  out  of  153,862 
white  children,  Connecticut  gave  82,433  a  permanent 
place  in  her  noble  schools. 

In  South  Carolina,  there  are  but  129,350  free  per 
sons  over  twenty  years  of  age;  and,  of  these,  16,56-t 
are  unable  to  read  the  word  heaven.  So,  in  all  that 
great  and  democratic  State,  there  are  only  112,786 
persons  over  twenty  who  know  their  A  B  C's ;  while 
in  Connecticut  there  are  213,662  persons  over  twenty ; 
and,  of  all  that  number,  only  5,306  are  illiterate,  and 
of  them  4,013  are  foreigners.  But,  of  all  the  16,564 
ignoramuses  of  South  Carolina  only  104  were  born  out 
of  that  State ! 

Out  of  365,026  persons  over  twenty,  South  Caro 
lina  has  only  112,786  who  can  read  their  primer; 
while,  out  of  213,662,  Connecticut  has  208,356  who 
can  read  and  write.  South  Carolina  can  boast  more 
than  250,000  native  adults  who  cannot  write  or  read 
the  name  of  their  God  —  a  noble  army  of  martyrs,  a 
cloud  of  witnesses  to  its  peculiar  institution ;  while 
poor  Connecticut  has  only  1,293  native  adults  unable 
to  read  their  Holy  Bible. 

Such  is  the  effect  of  slavery  and  freedom  on  educa 
tion  in  the  old  States.  The  Southern  politician  was 
right :  "  Free  society  is  a  failure !  " 

2.  Now  compare  two  new  States  of  about  the  same 


CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  AFFAIRS        459 

age.  Arkansas  was  admitted  into  the  Union  in  1836, 
Michigan  in  1837. 

Arkansas  contains  52,198  square  miles,  and  209,- 
807  inhabitants,  of  whom  151,746  are  free,  and  58,- 
161  are  slaves.  Michigan  contains  56,243  square 
miles,  and  was  entered  for  settlement  later  than  her 
sister,  but  contains  397,654  persons,  all  free. 

In  Arkansas,  the  land  is  valued  at  $5.88  the  acre; 
and  in  Michigan  at  $11.83.  The  slave  State  has 
781,531  acres  of  improved  land;  and  Michigan, 
1,929,110.  The  farms  of  Arkansas  are  worth  $15,- 
265,245;  and  those  of  Michigan,  $51,872,446.  Thus 
slavery  and  freedom  affect  the  value  of  land  in  the 
new  States. 

Michigan  had,  in  1855,  699  miles  of  railroad,  which 
had  cost  $19,000,000 ;  Arkansas  had  paid  nothing  for 
railroads.  The  total  valuation  of  Arkansas,  in  1850, 
was  $39,871,025:  the  value  of  the  slaves,  $23,264,400, 
was  included.  Deducting  that,  there  remains  but 
$16,576,625,  as  the  entire  worth  of  Arkansas;  while 
Michigan  has  property  to  the  amount  of  $59,787,255. 
Thus  slavery  and  freedom  affect  the  value  of  property 
in  the  new  States. 

In  1850,  Arkansas  had  115,023  children  under 
twenty,  whereof  11,050  were  in  schools,  academies,  or 
colleges;  while  Michigan  had  211,969,  of  whom  112,- 
382,  were  at  school,  academy,  or  college.  Or,  to  omit 
the  colored  population,  Arkansas  had  97,402  white 
persons  under  twenty,  and  only  11,050  attending 
school ;  while,  of  210,831  whites  of  that  age  in  Michi 
gan,  112,175  were  at  school  or  college.  Last  year, 
Michigan  had  132,234  scholars  in  her  public  common 
schools.  In  1850,  Arkansas  contained  64,787  whites 
over  twenty  —  but  16,935  of  these  were  unable  to 


460  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

read  and  write;  while  out  of  184,240  of  that  age  in 
Michigan,  only  8,281  were  thus  ignorant  —  of  these, 
3,009  were  foreigners;  while  of  the  16,935  illiterate 
persons  of  Arkansas,  only  37  were  born  out  of  that 
State.  The  slave  State  had  only  47,852  persons  over 
twenty  who  could  read  a  word;  while  the  free  State 
had  175,959.  Michigan  had  107,943  volumes  in 
"  libraries  other  than  private,"  and  Arkansas  420  vol 
umes.  Thus  slavery  and  freedom  affect  the  education 
of  the  people  in  the  new  States. 

Now  see  the  effect  of  slavery  and  freedom  on  prop 
erty  and  education  in  their  respective  neighborhoods. 
I  take  examples  from  the  States  of  Missouri  and  Vir 
ginia,  kindly  furnished  by  an  ingenious  and  noble- 
hearted  man. 

1.  In  the  twelve  counties  of  Missouri,  which  border 
on  slaveholding  Arkansas,  there  are  20,982  free  white 
persons,    occupying   75,360    acres    of   improved   land, 
valued  at  $13  an  acre,  or  $989,932:  while  in  the  ten 
counties  of  Missouri  bordering  on  Iowa,  a  free  State, 
though  less  attractive  in  soil  and  situation,  there  are 
26,890  free  white  persons,  with  123,030  acres  of  im 
proved  land,  worth  $19  an  acre,  or  $2,379,765.     Thus 
the  neighborhood  of  slavery  retards  the  development 
of  property. 

In  those  ten  Northern  counties  bordering  on  free 
dom,  there  were  2,329  scholars  in  the  public  schools; 
while  in  the  twelve  Southern,  bordering  on  Arkansas, 
there  were  only  339.  Thus  the  neighborhood  of 
slavery  affects  the  development  of  education. 

2.  Compare  the  Northern  with  the  Southern  coun 
ties    of    Virginia,    and    you    find    the    same    results. 
Monongahela  and  Preston  counties,  in  Virginia,  bor 
dering   on   free   Pennsylvania,   contain    122,444   acres 


CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  AFFAIRS        461 

of  improved  land,  valued  at  $21  an  acre,  or  $2,784,137 
in  all;  are  occupied  by  24,095  persons,  whereof  263 
only  are  slaves;  and  there  are  1,747  children  in  the 
public  schools :  while  the  corresponding  counties  of 
Patrick  and  Henry,  touching  on  North  Carolina,  con 
tain  but  99,731  acres  of  improved  land,  worth  only 
$15  an  acre,  or  $1,554,841  in  all;  are  occupied  by 
18,481  inhabitants,  5,664  of  them  slaves;  and  have 
only  961  children  at  school.  But  cross  the  borders, 
and  note  the  change:  the  adjacent  counties  of  North 
Carolina,  Rockingham,  and  Stokes,  contain  103,784 
acres  of  improved  land,  worth  $14  an  acre,  or  $1,517,- 
520;  23,701  persons,  of  whom  7,122  are  slaves;  and 
have  only  2,050  pupils  at  school  or  college:  while 
Fayette  and  Green  counties,  in  Pennsylvania,  ad 
jacent  to  the  part  of  Virginia  above  spoken  of,  con 
tain  297,005  acres  of  improved  land,  valued  at  $49 
an  acre,  or  $7,618,919;  61,248  persons,  all  free;  and 
12,998  pupils  at  the  common  schools. 

The  South  has  numerous  natural  advantages  over 
the  North, —  a  better  soil,  a  more  genial  climate,  the 
privilege  of  producing  those  tropical  plants  now 
deemed  indispensable  to  civilization.  Of  $193,000,000 
of  exports  last  year,  $93,000,000  were  of  Southern 
cotton  and  tobacco.  Yet  such  is  her  foolish  and 
wicked  system,  that,  while  the  North  continually  in 
creases  in  riches,  the  South  becomes  continually  poorer 
and  poorer  in  comparison.  Boston  alone  could  buy  up 
two  States  like  South  Carolina,  and  still  have  thirteen 
millions  of  dollars  to  spare.  Three  hundred  years 
ago,  Spain  monopolized  this  continent ;  she  exploit- 
ered  Mexico,  Peru,  the  islands  of  the  Gulf;  all  the 
gold  of  the  New  World  came  to  her  hand.  Where  is 
it  now?  Spain  is  poorer  than  Italy.  Is  here  no  les 
son  for  South  Carolina  and  Virginia? 


462  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

In  civilized  society,  there  must  be  an  organization 
of  things  and  of  persons,  of  labor  and  of  government; 
and  so  slavery  is  to  be  looked  at,  not  only  in  its  eco 
nomical  relations,  as  affecting  labor  and  wealth,  power 
over  matter,  but  also  in  its  political  relations,  as  affect 
ing  government,  which  is  power  over  men. 

There  are  350,000  slaveholders  in  the  United 
States,  with  their  families,  making  a  population  of 
1,750,000  persons.  Now  slavery  is  a  political  in 
stitution  which  puts  the  government  of  all  the  people 
of  the  slave  States  into  the  hands  of  those  few  men : 
the  majority  are  the  servants  of  this  minority. 

1.  The  350,000  slaveholders  control  the  3,250,000 
slaves ;  owning  their  bodies,  and,  by  direct  legislation, 
purposely  preventing  their  development. 

2.  They    control    the    4,750,000    non-slaveholders, 
cutting  them  off  from  their  share  of  government,  and 
hindering  them  alike  in  their  labor  and  their  educa 
tion,  and  purposely  preventing  their  development. 

3.  They   control  the   Federal  politics,   and  thereby 
affect  the  organization  of  things  and  persons,  of  labor 
and   government,   throughout   the   whole   nation,   and 
purposely  prevent  the  development  of  the  whole  peo 
ple. 

In  all  these  three  forms  of  political  action,  they 
have  selfishly  sought  their  own  immediate  interest,  and 
wrought  to  the  lasting  damage  of  the  slaves,  the  non- 
slaveholders,  and  the  whole  people.  But  neither  the 
slaves  nor  the  non-slaveholders  have  made  any  pow 
erful  opposition  to  this  injury:  the  chief  hostility  has 
been  shown  by  the  North,  or  rather  by  the  few  persons 
therein  who  either  had  mind  enough  to  see  this  mani 
fold  mischief  clearly,  or  else  such  moral  and  religious 
instinct  as  made  them  at  once  revolt  from  this  wick- 


CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  AFFAIRS        463 

edness.  But,  ever  since  the  Declaration  of  Independ 
ence,  there  has  been  a  strife,  open  or  hidden,  between 
the  South  and  this  portion  of  the  Northern  people ; 
and  though  the  battle  has  been  often  joined,  yet,  since 
1788,  the  North  has  been  beaten  in  every  conflict, 
pitched  battle  or  skirmish,  until  last  January ;  then, 
after  much  fighting,  the  House  of  Representatives 
chose  for  Speaker  a  man  hostile  to  slavery.  Always 
before,  the  South  conquered  the  North;  that  is,  the 
minority  conquered  the  majority.  The  party  with 
the  smallest  numbers,  the  least  money,  the  meanest 
intelligence,  the  wickedest  cause,  yet  beat  the  larger, 
richer,  more  intelligent  party,  which  had  also  justice 
on  its  side.  There  is  now  no  time  to  explain  this  po 
litical  paradox. 

Between  1787  and  1851,  the  regressive  power,  Slav 
ery,  took  nine  great  steps  towards  absolute  rule  over 
the  United  States.  These  I  have  spoken  of  before. 
It  now  lifts  its  foot  to  take  a  tenth  step, —  to  stamp 
bondage  on  all  the  territories  of  this  Union,  and 
then  organize  them  into  slave  States.  Look  at  the 
facts. 

We  have  now  one  million  four  hundred  thousand 
.square  miles  of  territory  not  organized  into  States 
(1,400,934).  Of  this,  Kansas,  Nebraska,  New  Mex 
ico,  and  Utah  make  nine  hundred  and  twenty-six  thou 
sand  (926,857).  Now,  tTie  South  aims  to  make  it  all 
slave  territory,  to  deliver  it  over  to  this  regressive 
force,  and  establish  therein  such  institutions  that  a  few 
men  shall  at  first  own  all  the  land;  next,  own  the 
bulk  of  the  working  people;  and,  thirdly,  shall  con 
trol  the  rest  of  the  whites ;  then  themselves  monopolize 
education,  and  yet  get  very  little  of  it;  repress  free 
dom  of  speech,  and  enact  laws  for  the  advantage  of 


464  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

the  vulgarest  of  all  oligarchies, —  a  band  of  men- 
stealers. 

Let  me  suppose  that  there  is  no  immediate  danger 
that  slavery  will  go  to  Oregon  or  Washington  ter 
ritory, —  rather  a  gratuitous  admission :  there  are  still 
nine  hundred  and  twenty-six  thousand  square  miles 
of  land  to  plant  it  on ;  that  is,  about  one-third  of  all 
the  country  which  the  United  States  own !  the  South 
is  endeavoring  to  establish  it  there.  Within  three 
years  the  great  battle  is  to  be  fought;  for,  before  the 
4th  of  March,  1859,  all  that  territory  of  fourteen 
hundred  thousand  square  miles  will  be  either  free  ter 
ritory  or  else  slave  territory. 

The  battle  is  first  for  Kansas.  Shall  it  be  free,  as 
the  majority  of  its  own  inhabitants  have  voted;  or 
slave,  as  the  Federal  Government  and  the  slave  power 
-  the  general  regressive  force  of  America  —  have  de 
termined  by  violence  to  make  it?  This  is  the  ques 
tion,  Shall  the  nine  hundred  and  twenty-six  thousand 
miles  of  territory  belong  to  three  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  slaveholders,  or  to  the  whole  people  of  the 
United  States?  This  is  a  question  which  directly  con 
cerns  the  material  interest  of  every  working  man  in 
the  nation,  and  especially  every  Northern  working 
man.  Before  the  1st  of  January,  1858,  perhaps  be 
fore  next  January,  Kansas,  with  its  114,790  square 
miles,  will  be  a  free  State  or  a  slave  State.  See  what 
follows,  immediately  or  ultimately,  if  we  let  the  slave 
holders  have  their  way,  and  make  Kansas  a  slave 
State. 

Look,  first,  at  the  effect  on  the  welfare  and  progress 
of  individuals. 

1.  A  privileged  class,  an  oligarchy  of  slavehold 
ers,  will  be  founded  there,  such  as  exists  in  the  present 


CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  AFFAIRS        465 

slave  States.  They  will  own  all  the  land,  almost  all 
the  laborers ;  will  make  laws  for  the  advantage  of  the 
slaveholder  against  the  interest  of  the  slave  and  the 
non-slaveholder.  That  is  the  effect  on  the  Southern 
man. 

2.  Next  see  the  effect  on  the  working  men  of  the 
North  who  emigrate  to  that  quarter.  They  must  go 
as  slaveholders  or  as  non-slaveholders. 

Some  will  go  as  slaveholders,  such  as  take  a  South- 
side  view  of  human  wickedness  in  general.  You  know 
what  the  effect  will  be  on  them.  Compare  the  con 
dition,  the  intellectual  and  moral  character,  of  New 
England  men  who  have  settled  in  Georgia,  and  be 
come  slaveholders,  with  others  of  the  same  families 
—  their  brothers  and  cousins  —  who  have  remained 
at  home,  and  engaged  in  agriculture,  commerce,  and 
manufactures. 

But  not  many  Northern  men  will  go  there  and  be 
come  slaveholders.  Some  will  go  as  non-slavehold 
ers;  and  you  will  see  under  what  disadvantage  they 
must  labor. 

1.  They  must  live  by  their  work,  and  in  a  place 
where  industry  is  not  honored,  as  in  Connecticut,  but 
is  despised,  as  in  South  Carolina  and  Arkansas.     The 
working  white  man  must  stand  on   a  level  with  the 
slave.     He  belongs  to  a  despised  caste.     He  will  have 
but  little  self-respect,  and  soon  will  sink  down  to  the 
character  and  condition  of  the  "  poor  whites  "  in  the 
old  slave  States.     A  scientific  friend  of  mine,  who  trav 
els  extensively  in  both  hemispheres,  says  that  he  has 
not  found  the  Caucasian  people  anywhere  so  degraded 
as  in  Tennessee  and  the  Carolinas. 

2.  Next,  there  will  be  no  miscellaneous  mechanical 
industry,  as  in  New  England  and  all  the  free  States. 

XIII— 30 


466  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

Agriculture  will  be  the  chief  business,  almost  the  only 
business ;  and  that  will  be  confined  to  the  great  staples 
—  corn,  wheat,  rice,  tobacco,  cotton ;  the  aim  will  be 
only  to  produce  the  raw  material.  Agriculture  will  be 
poor,  land  will  be  low  in  price,  and  continually  getting 
run  out  by  unskilful  culture.  The  slave's  foot  burns 
the  soil  and  spoils  the  land ;  that  is  the  master's  fault. 
Twenty  years  hence,  land  will  not  be  worth  $16  an 
acre,  as  in  sterile  New  Hampshire,  but  $4,  as  in  fertile 
Georgia.  There  will  be  no  rapid  development  of 
wealth ;  and,  as  the  Northern  man  values  riches,  I 
think  he  should  look  to  this,  and  see  that  the  land  is 
not  taken  from  under  his  foot,  and  the  power  of  creat 
ing  wealth  from  his  head  and  hand. 

3.  Then  there  will  be  no  good  and  abundant  roads, 
as  in  New  England,  but  only  a  few,  as  in  Carolina  and 
Virginia,  and  those  miserably  poor.     In  Kansas  twenty 
years  hence,  there  will  not  be  1,964  miles  of  railroad, 
as  in  Illinois,  but  231  miles,  as  in  Missouri. 

4.  There   will  be  no   abundance   of  beneficent   free 
schools,  as  in  New  England,  but  a  few,  and  of  the 
worst  sort.      Education   will  be  the  monopoly  of  the 
rich,  who  will  not  get  much  thereof.     Laws  will  forbid 
the  education  of  the  slave,  and  discourage  the  culture 
of  the  mass  of  the  people. 

5.  There  will  be  no  lyceums,  no  courses  of  lectures ; 
but,    in   their   place,   there    will   be   horse-races,    occa 
sionally  the  lynching  of  an  abolitionist,  or  the  burning 
of  a  black  man  at  a  slow  fire !     Yet,  now  and  then,  a 
Northern   man   will   be   invited  thither  by   the   slave 
holders;    some   unapostolical   fisherman    will   take   the 
majestic  memory  of  Washington,  disembowel  it  of  all 
its   most  generous  humanity,  skilfully   arrange  it   as 
bait;  and  then,  with  bob  and  sinker,  hook  and  line, 


CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  AFFAIRS        467 

this  "  political  Micawber,"  "  looking  for  something 
to  turn  up,"  will  go  angling  along  the  shore,  praying 
for  at  least  a  presidential  bite,  and  possibly  obtain  a 
conventional  nibble. 

6.  There  will  be  no  "  libraries  other  than  private," 
with  their  one  hundred  and  eight  thousand  volumes, 
as  in  Michigan ;  only  four  hundred  and  twenty  vol 
umes,  as   in  Arkansas.     But   a  noble   army   of  igno 
ramuses,  twenty -five  men   out  of  each  hundred  adult 
white  men,  will  attest  the  value  of  the  "  peculiar  insti 
tution." 

7.  There  will  be  no  multiplicity  of  valuable  news 
papers,  with  an  annual  circulation  of  3,324,000  cop 
ies,  as  in  Michigan;  but  a  few  political  journals,  scat 
tering  377,000  dingy  sheets,  as  in  Arkansas. 

8.  There  will  be  no  abundant  and  convenient  meet 
ing-houses,   as    in   the   North;   not    one   hundred   and 
twenty   thousand   comfortable   pew-seats   in   neat   and 
decorous    churches,   as    in   Michigan;   but    only    sixty 
thousand   benches   in   barns    and   log-huts,    as    in   Ar 
kansas.     No  army  of  well-educated  ministers  will  help, 
instruct,   and   moralize   the   community,   but   ignorant 
ranters   or  calculating   hypocrites   will  stalk   through 
the  Christian  year,  perverting  the  Bible  to  a  Fugitive 
Slave   Bill,   and   denying  the   higher  law   which  God 
writes  in  man. 

9.  There   will   be   no   laws   favoring   all   men;   but 
statutes  putting  the  neck  of  labor  into  the  claws  of 
capital,  by  which  the  strong  will  crush  the  weak,  and 
enslave  the  feeblest  of  all;  constitutions  like  those  of 
South  Carolina,  which  provide  that  nobody  shall  sit 
in  the  popular  house  of  the  legislature,  unless,  in  his 
own  right,  he  own  "  ten  negro  slaves." 

10.  There  will  be  no  universal  suffrage,  as  in  Mas- 


468  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

sachusetts;  but  a  man's  political  rights  will  be  deter 
mined  by  the  color  of  his  skin,  and  the  amount  of  his 
estate.  One  permanent  class  will  monopolize  govern 
ment,  money,  education,  honor,  and  ease;  the  other 
permanent  class  will  be  forced  to  bondage,  ignorance, 
poverty,  and  shame.  This  is  the  prospect  which  the 
Northern  man  will  find  before  him  if  slavery  prevails 
in  the  new  territory. 

11.  That  is  not  all:  his  property  and  person  will 
not  be  safe,  as  in  Michigan ;  border-ruffians  wrill  per 
manently  have  gone  over  the  border,  and  a  new  Ar 
kansas  be  established  in  Kansas. 

Under  such  circumstances,  Northern  men  will  not 
go  there;  and  so  Kansas,  and  then  all  the  other  terri 
tory,  is  stolen  from  the  North,  as  effectually  as  if 
ceded  to  Russia  or  annexed  to  the  Spanish  domain. 
Yes,  more  completely  lost;  for,  if  it  did  belong  to 
Spain,  we  might  reclaim  it  by  filibustering;  and  the 
American  Government  would  not  disturb,  but  help  us. 

Then,  if  a  Northern  man  wishes  to  migrate,  he  has 
only  the  poorer  land  of  Washington  and  Oregon  be 
fore  him,  and  is  shut  out  from  the  most  valuable  ter 
ritory  of  the  United  States. 

If  the  city  government  of  Boston  were,  next  month, 
to  establish  a  piggery  on  Boston  Common,  with  fifty 
thousand  swine,  and  set  up  an  immense  slaughter 
house  of  the  savagest  and  filthiest  character  in  the 
Granary  Burying-ground,  on  Copp's  Hill,  and  in  each 
of  the  public  squares;  were  to  give  all  vacant  land  to 
the  gamblers,  thieves,  pimps,  kidnappers,  and  mur 
derers —  they  would  not  commit  a  worse  injustice, 
and  they  would  not  do  a  greater  proportional  damage 
to  the  real  estate,  and  more  mischief  to  the  health  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  city,  than  the  American  Gov- 


CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  AFFAIRS        469 

eminent  would  do  the  working  people  of  the  South  and 
North  by  creating  this  nuisance  of  slavery  on  the  free 
soil  of  Kansas. 

So  much  for  the  effect  of  this  on  the  individual  in 
terests  of  the  working  people  of  America.  I  have 
only  taken  the  lowest  possible  view  of  the  subject. 

See  its  effects  on  American  politics  —  on  the  welfare 
and  progress  of  the  nation.  If  Kansas  is  made  a 
slave  State,  we  shall  either  keep  united,  or  else  dissolve 
the  Union  and  separate. 

I.  Suppose  we  keep  united:  what  follows? 

First,  New  Mexico  will  be  a  slave  State,  then  Utah. 

California  is  only  half  for  freedom  now,  and  will 
soon  split  into  two;  Lower  California  will  be  slave. 

Then  Texas  will  peel  off  into  new  States;  Western 
Texas  will  soon  be  made  a  new  slave  State. 

The  Mesilla  Valley,  bigger  than  Virginia,  will  be  a 
slave  territory. 

Then  we  shall  dismember  Mexico  —  make  slave  ter 
ritory  there. 

We  shall  re-annex  the  Mosquito  territory :  the  gov 
ernment  wants  it,  and  lets  all  manner  of  filibusters  go 
there  now. 

We  shall  seize  Cuba,  to  make  that  soil  red  with  the 
white  man's  blood,  which  is  now  black  with  African 
bondage. 

San  Domingo  must  next  fall  a  prey  to  American  lust 
for  land. 

Then  we  shall  carry  out  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  in 
the  North  as  never  before.  In  1836,  Mr.  Curtis 
asked  the  Supreme  Court  of  Massachusetts  to  decree 
that  a  slaveholder  from  Louisiana  might  take  his 
bondman  to  Boston  as  a  slave,  hold  him  as  a  slave,  sell 
him  as  a  slave,  or,  as  a  slave,  carry  him  back.  In 


470  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

1855,  Mr.  Kane  decreed  that  a  slaveholder  might 
bring  his  slave  into  a  free  State,  and  keep  him  there 
as  long  as  he  would  in  transitu.  Then  we  must  have 
laws  to  enforce  these  demands:  Congress  will  legislate, 
and  the  Supreme  Court  will  rule  to  put  slavery  into 
every  Northern  State.  In  the  beginning  of  June, 
1854?,  this  same  Mr.  Curtis,  then  become  a  judge,  gave 
a  "  charge,"  in  which  he  made  it  appear  that,  to  make 
a  speech  in  Faneuil  Hall  against  kidnapping  was 
"  a  misdemeanor."  Yes,  if  a  Massachusetts  minister 
sees  his  parishioners  kidnapped,  and  makes  a  speech 
in  Faneuil  Hall  against  that  iniquity,  and  tells  the 
people  that  they  are  slaves  of  Southern  masters,  Mr. 
Justice  Curtis  says  that  that  man  has  committed  a 
crime,  to  be  punished  by  imprisonment  for  twelve 
months,  and  a  fine  of  three  hundred  dollars !  By  and 
by,  that  charge  will  be  "  good  common  law :  "  all  law 
yers  will  be  slave-hunters;  all  judges  of  the  Scroggs 
family ;  all  court-houses  girt  with  chains ;  all  the  news 
papers  administration  and  satanic;  all  the  Trinitarian 
doctors  of  divinity  will  take  a  South-side  view  of 
wickedness  in  high  places ;  all  the  Nothingarian  doc 
tors  of  divinity  will  send  back  their  mothers  —  for  a 
consideration !  And  then  what  becomes  of  freedom  of 
speech,  freedom  to  worship  God?  What  of  inaliena 
ble  rights  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happi 
ness?  They  all  perish;  and  the  mocking  of  tyrants 
rings  round  the  land :  "  We  meant  to  subdue  you," 
scoffs  one ;  "  I  said,  '  We  will  crush  out  humanity,'  " 
laughs  forth  another.  Where,  then,  is  America? 
It  goes  where  Korah,  and  Dathan,  and  Abiram  are 
said  to  have  gone  long  ago.  The  earth  will  open  her 
mouth  and  swallow  us  up;  the  justice  of  God  will  visit 
us  —  our  crime  greater  than  that  of  Sodom  and  Go- 


CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  AFFAIRS        471 

morrah  —  for  we  shall  have  committed  high  treason 
against  the  dearest  rights  of  man!  He  will  rain  on 
us  worse  than  fire  and  brimstone;  our  name  shall 
rot  in  the  Dead  Sea  of  infamy,  and  the  curses  of  man 
kind  hang  over  our  memory  for  ever  and  ever,  world 
without  end! 

II.  Suppose  we  separate.  The  North  may  at 
length  feel  some  little  manhood;  become  angry  at  this 
continual  insult,  and  be  roused  by  fear  of  actual  ruin ; 
calculate  the  value  of  the  Union,  and  find  it  not  worth 
while  any  longer  to  be  tied  to  this  offensive  partner. 
See  what  may  follow  in  the  attempt  at  dissolution. 
Look  at  the  comparative  military  power  —  the  men 
and  money  —  of  the  North  and  South. 

Omitting  California  and  the  territories,  the  North 
has  fifteen  million  freeman,  or  three  million  men  able  to 
do  military  duty;  and  also  thirty-two  hundred  million 
dollars  ($3,200,000,000);  while  the  South  has  fifteen 
hundred  million  dollars  ($1,500,000,000),  six  million 
five  hundred  thousand  freeman,  and  three  million  five 
hundred  thousand  slaves.  But  the  latter  are  a  negative 
quantity  to  be  subtracted  from  the  whole.  So  the 
effective  population  is  three  millions,  or  six  hundred 
thousand  men  able  to  bear  arms.  Such  is  the  com 
parative  personal  and  material  force  of  the  two.  I 
will  not  speak  of  the  odds  in  the  quality  of  Northern 
and  Southern  men,  looking  now  only  at  the  obvious 
quantitative  difference. 

The  contest  could  not  be  doubtful  or  long.  The 
North  could  dictate  the  terms  of  separation,  and  would 
probably  take  two-thirds  of  the  naval  and  military 
property  of  the  nation,  and  all  of  the  territories. 
Then  would  come  the  question,  Where  shall  be  the  line 
of  demarcation  between  freedom  and  slaverv?  I 


472  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

think  the  North  might  fix  the  Potomac  and  Ohio  as 
the  northern,  and  the  Mississippi  as  the  western  limit 
of  slavery.  Depend  upon  it,  we  shall  not  leave  more 
land  than  these  boundaries  indicate  to  the  cause  of 
bondage.  Then  the  ten  Barbary  States  of  America 
might  found  a  new  empire,  with  despotism  for  their 
central  idea;  take  the  name  of  Braggadocia,  Servilia, 
Violentia,  Thrasonia,  or,  in  plainer  Saxon  title,  Bully- 
dom;  and  become  as  famous  in  future  history  as  the 
"  Five  Cities  of  the  Plain  "  were  in  the  past.  But 
would  Virginia,  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Louisiana,  con 
sent  to  be  border  States,  with  no  Fugitive  Slave  Bill 
to  fetter  their  bondmen? 

I  do  not  propose  disunion  —  at  present.  I  would 
never  leave  the  black  men  in  bondage,  or  the  whites 
subject  to  the  slaveholding  oligarchy  which  rules  them. 
The  Constitution  itself  guarantees  "  a  republican  form 
of  government  "  to  each  State  in  the  Union :  no  slave 
State  has  had  it  yet.  Perhaps  the  North  will  one  day 
respect  the  other  half  of  "  the  compromises  of  the  Con 
stitution."  Certainly  there  must  be  national  unity  of 
idea,  either  of  freedom  or  of  slavery,  or  else  we  separate 
before  long. 

This  regressive  force,  which  retards  the  progress 
and  diminishes  the  welfare  of  the  South,  and  yet  con 
trols  the  politics  of  America,  is  determined  to  conquer 
the  progressive  force,  to  put  liberty  down,  to  spread 
bondage  over  all  the  North,  to  organize  it  in  all  the  wild 
land  of  the  continent.  The  ablest  champions  of  this 
iniquity  are  Northern  men.  The  same  North  which 
bore  Seward  and  Giddings,  Sumner  and  Hale,  not  to 
mention  others  equally  able,  is  mother  also  to  Gushing 
and  Douglas ;  and  one  of  these  would  "  crush  out  "  all 
opposition  to  slavery,  all  love  of  welfare  and  progress ; 


CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  AFFAIRS        473 

the  other  is  reported  to  have  said  to  the  North,  in  the 
Senate,  "  We  mean  to  subdue  you."  Mark  the  words 
— "  We  mean  to  subdue  you!  "  That  is  the  aim  of 
the  administration,  to  make  progress,  regress ;  welfare, 
illfare;  to  make  Democracy  and  Christianity,  Despo 
tism  and  anti-Christianity;  that  is  the  purpose  of  the 
oligarchy  of  slaveholders,  to  be  executed  with  those 
triple  Northern  tools  already  named  —  base  men,  mean 
men,  ignorant  men. 

The  first  great  measure  is  to  put  slavery  into  Kan 
sas  and  Nebraska,  into  four  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
six  hundred  and  eighty  miles  of  wild  land. 

To  accomplish  that,  five  steps  were  necessary.  Here 
they  are :  — 

I.  The  first  was  to  pass  a  pro-slavery  Act  to  or 
ganize  the  Kansas  and  Nebraska  territory.  That  ac 
complished  two  things :  — 

1.  It  repealed  the  Missouri  Compromise,  and  laid 
the  territory  open  to  the  slaveholder. 

2.  It  established  squatter  sovereignty,  and  allowed 
the  settlers  to  make  laws  for  slavery  or  freedom,  as 
they  saw  fit.     The  South  intended  that  it  should  be  a 
slave  State. 

You  know  how  this  first  step  was  taken  in  1854; 
what  was  done  by  Congress,  by  the  President;  you 
have  not  forgotten  the  conduct  of  Mr.  Douglas  of  Illi 
nois.  Massachusetts  yet  remembers  the  behavior  of 
Mr.  Everett.  It  is  rather  difficult  to  find  all  the  facts 
concerning  this  Kansas  business ;  lies  have  been  woven 
over  the  whole  matter,  and  I  know  of  no  transaction  in 
human  history  which  has  been  covered  up  with  such 
abundant  lying,  from  the  death  of  Ananias  and  Sap- 
phira  down  to  the  first  nomination  of  Governor  Gard 
ner.  Still  the  main  facts  appear  through  this  gar 
ment  of  lies. 


474  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

II.  The  second  step  was  to  give  the  new  territory 
a  slave  government,  which  would  take  pains  to  organize 
slavery  into  the  land,  and  freedom  out  of  it.      So  the 
executive   appointed   persons   supposed   to   be    compe 
tent  for  that  work,  and,  amongst  others,  Mr.  Reeder, 
of  Easton,  in  Pennsylvania,  who  was  thought  to  be 
n't  for  that  business.     But  it  turned  out  otherwise:  he 
became  conscientious,  and  refused  to  execute  the  in 
famous    and    unlawful    commands    of    the    executive. 
Finding  it  was  so,  the  President  —  I  have  it  on  good 
authority  —  tried   to    bribe    him    to    resign,    offering 
him  the  highest  office  then  vacant  —  the  ministry  to 
China.     Governor  Reeder  refused  the  bribe,  and  then 
was  discharged  from  his  office  on  the  pretense  of  some 
pecuniary    unfaithfulness.     Mr.    Shannon    was   thrust 
into  his  place,  for  which  he  seems  to  the  manner  born ; 
for  —  I  have  this  also   on   good  authority  —  his  ha 
bitual  drunkenness  seems  to  be  one  of  the  smallest  of  his 
public  vices. 

III.  The    third    step    was    to    establish    slavery    by 
squatter  sovereignty.     For  this,  two  things  were  indis 
pensable:      (1.)    To    elect   a   legislature   friendly    to 
slavery;   and   (£.)    To  get  laws  made  by  that  legis 
lature  to  secure  the  desired  end. 

1.  This  must  be  done  by  actual  settlers ;  and  then, 
for  the  first  time  in  this  career  of  wickedness,  a  diffi 
culty  was  found.  The  people  were  to  be  consulted ; 
and  no  coup  d'etat  of  the  government  could  do  the 
work.  There  was  an  unexpected  difficulty ;  for,  soon 
as  Kansas  was  open,  great  bodies  went  there  from  the 
North  to  settle  and  secure  it  to  freedom.  It  soon  be 
came  plain  that  they  were  numerous  enough  to  bring 
squatter  sovereignty  itself  over  to  the  side  of  human 
ity,  and,  by  their  votes,  exclude  bondage  for  ever. 


CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  AFFAIRS        475 

That  must  be  prevented  by  the  regressive  force.  Mr. 
Atchison,  Mr.  Stringfellow,  and  others  were  appointed 
to  take  the  matter  in  hand.  Citizens  of  Missouri  or 
ganized  themselves  into  companies,  and  in  military 
order,  with  pistols  and  bowie-knives,  and  in  one  instance 
with  cannon,  went  over  the  border  into  Kansas  to  de 
termine  the  elections  by  excluding  the  legal  voters,  and 
themselves  casting  the  ballot.  In  ten  months,  they 
made  four  general  invasions  of  Kansas,  if  I  am  rightly 
informed;  namely,  (1.)  On  the  29th  of  July,  1854; 
(2.)  29th  of  November,  1854;  (3.)  30th  March,  1855, 
and  (4.)  22nd  May,  1855.  The  third  was  the  great 
invasion,  made  to  elect  the  legislators  who  were  to 
enact  the  territorial  laws.  It  appears  that  four  thou 
sand  men  marched  bodily  from  Missouri  to  Kansas, 
some  of  them  penetrating  two  hundred  miles  into  the 
interior,  and  delivered  their  votes,  electing  men  who 
would  put  slavery  into  the  land.  The  fourth  was  a 
smaller  and  local  invasion,  to  fill  vacancies  in  the  legis 
lature. 

I  cannot  dwell  on  these  things,  nor  stop  to  speak  of 
the  violence  and  murder  repeatedly  committed  by  these 
border  ruffians,  under  the  eyes,  and  with  the  consent, 
and  by  the  encouragement,  of  the  American  execu 
tive.  You  can  read  those  things  in  the  newspapers, 
at  least  in  the  New  York  Tribune  and  Evening  Post. 
But,  suffice  it  to  say,  the  legislature  thus  chosen  was 
wholly  illegal.  If  Jersey  City  were  to  order  a  munici 
pal  election,  and  New  York  were  to  go  there,  and  choose 
aldermen  and  common  councilmen,  and  the  new  officers 
were  to  act  in  that  capacity,  we  should  have  a  parallel 
of  what  took  place  in  Kansas. 

Thus  the  slave  power  which  controls  the  Federal 
Government  secured  the  first  requisite, —  a  slave  legis 
lature. 


476  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

2.  They  must  next  proceed  to  make  the  appropriate 
laws.  The  legislature  came  together  on  the  2nd  July, 
1855,  at  the  place  legally  fixed  by  Governor  Reeder: 
they  passed  an  illegal  Act,  fixing  the  seat  of  govern 
ment  at  Shawneetown,  on  the  borders  of  Missouri,  and 
adjourned  thither.  The  governor  vetoed  the  Act,  and 
repudiated  the  legislature,  illegally  chosen  at  first,  il 
legally  acting  afterwards.  But  they  continued  in  ses 
sion  there  from  July  15th  to  August  31st,  and  made 
a  huge  statute-book  of  more  than  a  thousand  great 
pages.  It  contains  substantially  the  laws  of  Missouri ; 
but,  in  some  instances,  they  were  made  worse.  Take 
this  for  example :  — 

"  No  person  who  shall  have  been  convicted  of  any  violation  of 
any  of  the  provisions  of  an  Act  of  Congress "  (the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bills  of  1793  and  1850),  "whether  such  conviction  was 
by  criminal  proceeding  or  by  civil  action,  in  any  courts  of  the 
United  States,  or  of  any  State  or  territory,  shall  be  entitled  to 
rote  at  any  election,  or  to  hold  any  office  in  this  territory." 
"If  any  person  offering  to  vote  shall  be  challenged  and  re 
quired  to  take  an  oath  or  affirmation  that  he  will  sustain  the 
provisions  of  the  above-recited  Acts  of  Congress "  (the  Fugi 
tive  Slave  Bills),  "and  shall  refuse  to  take  such  oath  or  affirma 
tion,  the  vote  of  such  person  shall  be  rejected." — Ch.  Ixvi.  § 
11,  p.  332. 

There  is  no  similar  provision  depriving  a  man  of  his 
vote  if  he  violate  any  other  statute :  but  a  deed  of  com 
mon  humanity  disfranchises  a  man  for  ever;  nay,  per 
forming  an  act  of  kindness  to  a  brother  perpetually 
deprives  a  man  of  his  share  in  the  government ! 

Look  at  this  statute :  — 

SECT.  11. — "  If  any  person  print,  write,  introduce  into,  publish, 
or  circulate,  or  cause  to  be  brought  into,  printed,  written,  pub 
lished,  or  circulated,  or  shall  knowingly  aid  or  assist  in  bringing 
into,  printing,  publishing,  or  circulating,  within  this  territory, 
any  book,  paper,  pamphlet,  magazine,  handbill,  or  circular,  con- 


CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  AFFAIRS        477 

taining  any  statements,  arguments,  opinions,  sentiments,  doc 
trines,  advice,  or  inuendo,  calculated  to  promote  a  disorderly, 
dangerous,  or  rebellious  disaffection  among  the  slaves  in  this 
territory,  or  to  induce  such  slaves  to  escape  from  the  service  of 
their  masters,  or  to  resist  their  authority,  he  shall  be  guilty  of 
a  felony,  and  be  punished  by  imprisonment  and  hard  labor  for 
a  term  not  less  than  five  years." 

But  stealing  a  free  child  under  twelve  is  punished 
with  imprisonment  for  not  more  than  five  years,  or  con 
finement  in  the  county  jail  not  less  than  six  months,  or 
a  fine  of  $500  (Ch.  xlviii.  Sec.  43). 

CHAP.  xv.  SECT.  13. — "  No  person  who  is  conscientiously  op 
posed  to  holding  slaves,  or  who  does  not  admit  the  right  to 
hold  slaves  in  this  territory,  shall  sit  as  a  juror  on  the  trial  of 
any  prosecutions  for  any  violation  of  any  of  the  sections  of 
this  Act." 

That  law  excludes  the  New  Testament  and  the  Old 
Testament,  as  well  as  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
and  the  works  of  Franklin,  Jefferson,  and  Madison: 
it  shuts  humanity  from  the  jury-box. 

IV.  The  next  step  was  to  get  a  pro-slavery  delegate 
from   Kansas   into   the   House   of  Representatives   at 
Washington.     So,  on  the  1st  of  October,   1855,  the 
day  appointed  by  the  border-ruffian  legislature  to  elect 
a  delegate,  a  fifth  invasion  was  made  by  outsiders  from 
Missouri,  who,  as  before,  took  possession  of  the  polls, 
and  chose  Hon.  J.  W.  Whitfield  to  that  office.     Mr. 
Shannon,  the  new  and  appropriate  governor  of  the 
territory,  gave  him  a  certificate  of  lawful  election.     He 
is   now   at   Washington    in   that    capacity.     But   the 
House  of  Representatives  has  the  matter  under  advise 
ment;  a  committee  has  gone  to  Kansas  to  investigate 
the  matter ;  and  the  country  waits,  anxious  for  the  re 
sults. 

V.  The  only  remaining  step  is  to  enforce  their  slave- 


478  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

law,  and  then  Kansas  becomes  a  slave  State.  But  this 
is  a  difficult  matter:  for  the  people  of  the  territory, 
indignant  at  this  invasion  of  their  rights,  long  since 
repudiated  the  legislature  of  ruffians;  held  a  conven 
tion  at  Topeka ;  formed  a  constitution,  which  was  sub 
mitted  to  the  people,  and  accepted  by  them.  They 
have  chosen  their  own  legislature,  State  officers,  sena 
tors,  and  representatives,  and  applied  for  admission 
into  the  Union  as  a  free  State.  But  men  who  have 
already  five  times  invaded  the  territory,  threaten  to  go 
there  again  and  enforce  the  laws  which  they  have  al 
ready  made. 

I  need  only  refer  to  the  conduct  of  the  President,  and 
his  masters  in  the  Cabinet,  and  say  that  he  has  been 
uniformly  on  the  side  of  this  illegal  violence.  You 
remember  his  message  last  winter,  his  proclamation  at 
a  later  day,  his  conduct  all  the  time.  He  encourages 
the  violence  of  these  tools  of  the  slave  power,  who  have 
sought  to  tread  the  people  down.  Hence  it  becomes 
indispensable  for  the  Northern  emigrants  to  take  arms. 
It  is  instructive  to  see  the  old  Puritan  spirit  coming 
out  in  the  sons  of  the  North,  even  those  who  went  on 
theological  errands.  Excepting  the  Quakers,  the  Uni 
tarians  are  the  most  unmilitary  of  sects ;  in  Boston, 
their  most  conspicuous  ministers  have  been  —  some  of 
them  still  are  —  notorious  supporters  of  the  worst  in 
iquities  of  American  slavery.  Surely  you  will  not 
forget  the  ecclesiastical  defenses  of  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Bill,  the  apologies  for  kidnapping.  But  a  noble- 
hearted  Unitarian  minister,  Rev.  Mr.  Nute,  "  felt 
drawn  to  Kansas."  Of  course  he  carried  his  Bible: 
he  knew  it  also  by  heart.  His  friends  gave  him  a  "  re 
peating  rifle  "  and  a  "  revolver."  These  also  "  felt 
drawn  to  Kansas."  This  "  minister  at  large  " —  very 


CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  AFFAIRS        479 

much  at  large,  too,  his  nearest  denominational  brother, 
on  one  side  five  hundred  miles  off,  on  the  other  fifteen 
hundred  —  trusts  in  God,  and  keeps  his  powder  dry. 
Listen  to  this,  written  December  3rd,  1855 :  — 

"  I  have  just  been  summoned  to  be  in  the  village  with  my 
repeating  rifle.  I  shall  go,  and  use  my  utmost  efforts  to  pre 
vent  bloodshed.  But,  if  it  comes  to  a  fight,  in  which  we  shall 
be  forced  to  defend  our  homes  and  lives  against  the  assault  of 
these  border  savages  (and  by  the  way,  the  Indians  are  being 
enlisted  on  both  sides),  I  shall  do  my  best  to  keep  them  off." 

On  the  10th,  he  writes:  — 

"  Our  citizens  have  been  shot  at,  and,  in  two  instances,  mur 
dered;  our  houses  invaded;  hay-ricks  burnt;  corn  and  other 
provisions  plundered;  cattle  driven  off;  all  communication  cut 
off  between  us  and  the  States;  wagons  on  the  way  to  us  with 
provisions  stopped  and  plundered,  and  the  drivers  taken  pris 
oners;  and  we  in  hourly  expectation  of  an  attack.  Nearly 
every  man  has  been  in  arms  in  the  village.  Fortifications  have 
been  thrown  up  by  incessant  labor  night  and  day.  The  sound 
of  the  drum,  and  the  tramp  of  armed  men  resounded  through 
our  streets;  families  fleeing  with  their  household  goods  for 
safety.  Day  before  yesterday  the  report  of  cannon  was  heard 
at  our  house  from  the  direction  of  Lecompton.  Last  Thursday, 
one  of  our  neighbors  —  one  of  the  most  peaceable  and  excellent 
of  men,  from  Ohio  —  on  his  way  home,  was  set  upon  by  a 
gang  of  twelve  men  on  horseback,  and  shot  down.  Several  of  the 
ruffians  pursued  him  some  distance  after  he  was  shot;  and  one 
was  seen  to  push  him  from  his  horse,  and  heard  to  shout  to  his 
companions  that  he  was  dead.  A  neighbor  reached  him  just 
before  he  breathed  his  last.  I  was  present  when  his  family 
came  in  to  see  the  corpse,  for  the  first  time,  at  the  Free-State 
Hotel, —  a  wife,  a  sister,  a  brother,  and  an  aged  mother.  It 
was  the  most  exciting  and  the  most  distressing  scene  that  I 
ever  witnessed.  Hundreds  of  our  men  were  in  tears,  as  the 
shrieks  and  groans  of  the  bereaved  women  were  heard  all  over 
the  building,  now  used  for  military  barracks.  Over  eight  hun 
dred  men  are  gathered  under  arms  at  Lawrence.  As  yet,  no 
act  of  violence  has  been  perpetrated  by  those  on  our  side;  no 
blood  of  retaliation  stains  our  hands.  We  stand,  and  are  ready 
to  act,  purely  in  the  defense  of  our  homes  and  lives.  I  am 
enrolled  in  the  cavalry,  though  I  have  not  yet  appeared  in  the 


480  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

ranks;  but,  should  there  be  an  attack,  I  shall  be  there.  I  have 
had  some  hesitation  about  the  propriety  of  this  course;  but 
some  one  has  said:  "In  questions  of  duty,  the  first  thought 
is  generally  the  right  one."  On  that  principle,  I  find  strong 
justification.  I  could  feel  no  self-respect  until  I  had  offered  my 
services. 

"Day  before  yesterday  we  received  the  timely  reinforcement 
of  a  twelve  pounder  howitzer,  with  ammunition  therefor,  in 
cluding  grape  and  canister,  with  forty  bomb-shells.  It  was 
sent  from  New  York  (made  at  Chicopee).  By  a  deed  of  suc 
cessful  daring  and  cunning,  it  was  brought  through  the  country 
invested  by  the  enemy,  a  distance  of  fifty  miles,  from  Kansas 
City,  by  an  unfrequented  route,  boxed  up  as  merchandise. 

"Sunday  Morning,  Dec.  9. —  The  governor  has  pledged  him 
self  to  do  all  he  can  to  make  peace;  and  we  are  told  that  the 
invaders  are  beginning  to  retreat;  but  we  know  not  what  to 
believe.  Our  men  are  to  be  kept  under  arms  for  twenty-four 
hours  longer,  at  least.  No  religious  meetings  for  the  last  three 
weeks.  No  work  done,  of  course.  Some  of  the  logs  to  be 
sawed  for  our  church  were  pressed  into  service  to  build  a  fort, 
of  which  we  have  no  less  than  five,  and  of  no  mean  dimensions 
or  strength.  For  a  time,  it  seemed  probable  that  the  founda 
tion-stones  for  the  church  would  be  wet  by  the  blood  of  the 
martyrs  for  liberty.  They  were  piled  up  on  the  ground,  and 
with  the  earth  thrown  out  of  the  excavation,  made  quite  a  fort 
on  the  hillside  just  outside  of  the  line  of  intrenchments." 

That  is  the  report  of  a  Unitarian  missionary.  You 
know  what  the  Trinitarians  have  done:  the  conduct  of 
that  valiant  man,  Henry  Ward  Beecher, —  the  most 
powerful  and  popular  minister  in  the  United  States, — 
and  his  "  Plymouth  Church,"  and  other  "  religious 
bodies  "  at  New  Haven  and  elsewhere,  need  not  be 
spoken  of. 

One  effect  of  this  warlike  spirit  is  curious ; "  pious  " 
newspapers  are  very  much  troubled  at  the  talk  of  rifles, 
pistols,  and  cannon.  In  1847,  they  rated  me  roundly 
for  preaching  against  the  Mexican  War, —  a  war  for 
plundering  a  feeble  nation,  that  we  might  blacken  her 
soil  with  slavery :  it  was  "  desecrating  the  Sabbath." 
They  liked  the  Sims  brigade,  the  Burns  division ;  they 


CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  AFFAIRS        481 

did  homage  to  the  cannon  which  men-stealers  loaded  in 
Boston,  therewith  to  shoot  the  friends  of  humanity 
on  the  graves  of  Hancock  and  Adams !  Now,  the 
mean  men  and  the  base  men  are  brought  over  to  "  peace 
principles :  "  a  rifle  is  "  not  of  the  Lord ; "  a  cannon 
is  "  a  carnal  weapon ;  "  a  sword  is  "  of  the  devil."  All 
the  South  thinks  gunpowder  is  "  unchristian."  Such 
a  "  change  of  heart  "  has  not  been  heard  of  since  the 
conversion  of  St.  Ananias  and  Sapphira. 

I  have  no  fondness  for  fighting;  not  the  average 
"  instinct  of  destruction."  I  should  suffer  a  great  while 
before  I  struck  a  blow.  But  there  are  times  when  I 
would  take  down  the  dreadful  weapon  of  war:  this  is 
one  of  them  for  the  men  in  Kansas. 

It  is  not  easy  for  the  border  ruffians  alone  to  put 
down  Kansas ;  not  possible  for  them  to  break  up  the 
popular  organization,  destroy  the  new  Constitution, 
and  hang  the  officers.  Will  the  President  send  the 
United  States  soldiers  to  do  this?  No  doubt  his  heart 
is  good  enough  for  that  work.  We  remember  what  he 
did  with  United  States  soldiers  at  Boston,  in  1854:  the 
only  service  they  ever  rendered  in  that  town  for  more 
than  forty  years  was  to  kidnap  Anthony  Burns.  But 
ihe  President  falters:  there  is  a  North;  all  last  winter 
there  was  a  North, —  Northern  ice  in  the  Mississippi ; 
Banks,  of  the  North,  at  Washington,  in  the  Speaker's 
chair. 

Kansas  and  Nebraska  are  the  "  Children  in  the 
Wood."  They  had  a  fair  inheritance ;  but  the  parents, 
dying,  left  them  to  a  guardian  uncle, —  the  President. 
I  heard  the  Northern  mother  say  to  him, — 

"  You  must  be  father  and  mother  both, 

And  uncle,  all  in  one." 
"  You  are  the  man  must  bring  our  babes 

To  wealth  or  misery. 
XIII— 31 


482  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

And,  if  you  keep  them  carefully, 

Then  God  will  you  reward; 
But,  if  you  otherwise  should  deal, 

God  will  your  deeds  regard." 

It  is  still  the  old  story :  the  Executive  uncle  promises 
well  enough:  yet  — 

"  He  had  not  kept  these  pretty  babes 

But  twelve  months  and  a  day, 
Before  he  did  devise 

To   make  them   both   away. 
He  bargained  with  two  ruffians  strong 

[That  is,  Straightwhig  and  Democrat,] 

Which  were  of  furious  mood, 
That  they  should  take  these  children  young, 
And  slay  them  in  a  wood." 

It  is  still  the  old  story.  One  of  the  ruffians  kills 
the  other;  but,  in  this  case,  Democrat,  the  strong  ruf 
fian,  killed  Straightwhig, —  a  weak  ruffian,  who  had  no 
"  backbone," —  and  now  seeks  to  kill  the  babes.  He 
is  not  content  to  let  them  starve, — 

"Their  pretty  lips  with  blackberries 
So  all  besmeared  and  dyed ;  " 

he  "  -would  make  them  both  away"  But  that  is  not 
quite  so  easy.  Kansas,  the  elder,  turns  out  a  very 
male  child,  a  thrifty  boy :  he  will  not  die;  he  refuses 
to  be  killed,  but,  with  such  weapons  as  he  has,  shows 
what  blood  he  came  of.  His  relations  hear  of  the 
matter,  and  make  a  noise  about  it.  The  uncle  becomes 
the  town  talk.  Even  the  ghost  of  Straightwhig  is 
disquieted,  and  "  walks  "  in  obscure  places,  by  grave 
yards,  "  haunting  "  some  houses.  Nay,  the  Northern 
mother  rises  from  the  grave:  perhaps  the  Northern 


CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  AFFAIRS        483 

father  is  not  dead,  but  only  sleeping,  like  Barbarossa 
in  that  other  fable,  with  his  Sharp's  rifle  for  a  pillow. 
Who  knows  but  he,  too,  will  "  rise,"  and  execute  his 
own  will?  The  history  may  yet  end  after  the  old 
sort:  — 

"  And  now  the  heavy  wrath  of  God 

Upon  the  uncle  fell; 
Yea,  fearful  fiends  did  haunt  his  house; 

His  conscience  felt  a  hell. 
His  barns  were  fired,  his  goods  consumed, 

His  lands  were  barren  made; 
Conventions  failed  to  nominate; 

No  office  with  him  staid." 

Kansas  applies  for  admission  as  a  free  State,  with 
a  constitution  made  in  due  form  and  by  the  people. 
The  regressive  force  is  determined  that  she  shall  be  a 
slave  State;  and  so  all  the  926,000  miles  of  territory 
become  the  spoil  of  the  slaveholder.  See  the  state  of 
things. 

The  majority  of  the  Senate  is  pro-slavery,  of  the 
satanic  democracy.  For  once,  the  House  inclines  the 
other  way, —  leans  towards  freedom.  A  bill  for  mak 
ing  Kansas  a  slave  State  will  pass  the  Senate ;  will  be 
resisted  in  the  House :  then  comes  the  tug  of  war.  The 
North  has  a  majority  in  the  House,  but  it  is  divided. 
If  all  will  unite,  they  make  Kansas  a  free  State  before 
the  4th  of  next  July.  They  can  force  the  adminis 
tration  to  this  act  of  justice,  simply  by  refusing  to 
vote  a  dollar  of  money  until  Kansas  is  free.  If  the 
House  will  determine  on  that  course,  the  two  executives 
—  the  presidential  and  the  senatorial  —  will  soon  come 
to  terms.  This  is  no  new  expedient:  it  was  often 
enough  resorted  to  by  our  fathers  in  old  England,  un 
der  the  Tudors  and  Stuarts ;  nay,  even  the  Dutch  used 
it  against  Philip  II. 


484  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

But  perhaps  there  is  not  virtue  enough  in  the  House 
to  do  this;  then  let  the  State  legislatures  which  are 
now  in  session  send  instructions,  the  people  —  who  are 
always  in  session  —  petitions,  to  that  effect. 

But  perhaps  the  people  themselves  are  not  quite 
ready  for  this  measure ;  and  the  House  and  Senate  can 
not  agree.  Then  the  question  goes  over  to  the  next 
presidential  election,  where  it  will  be  the  most  impor 
tant  element.  There  will  be  three  candidates,  perhaps 
four;  for  tn~e  straight  Whigs  may  put  up  some  in 
vertebrate  politician,  hoping  to  catch  whatever  shall 
"  turn  up."  It  is  possible  there  shall  be  no  choice  by 
the  people ;  then  the  election  goes  to  the  present  House 
of  Representatives,  where  the  choice  is  by  States.  In 
either  case,  if  the  matter  be  managed  well,  the  progres 
sive  force  of  America  may  get  into  the  presidential 
chair.  I  mean  to  say,  we  can  choose  an  anti-slavery 
President  next  autumn, —  some  one  who  loves  man  and 
God,  not  merely  money,  loaves  and  fishes, —  who  will 
counsel  and  work  for  the  present  welfare  and  future 
progress  of  America,  and  so  promote  that  Christianity 
and  democracy  spoken  of  before.  I  shall  not  pretend 
to  say  who  the  man  is:  it  must  be  some  one  who  rev 
erences  JUSTICE, —  the  higher  law  of  God.  He  must 
be  a  strong  man,  a  just  man,  a  man  sure  for  the  right. 
Let  there  be  no  humbug  this  time,  no  doubtful  man. 

If  we  once  put  an  anti-slavery  man,  never  so  mod 
erate,  into  the  Presidency,  then  see  what  follows  im 
mediately  or  at  length :  — 

1.  The  Executive  holds  40,000  offices  in  his  right 
hand,  and  70,000,000  annual  dollars  in  his  left  hand: 
both  will  be  dispensed  so  as  to  promote  the  welfare  and 
the  prosperity  of  the  people.  All  the  great  offices,  ex 
ecutive,  judicial,  diplomatic,  commercial,  will  be  con- 


CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  AFFAIRS        485 

trolled  by  the  progressive  force;  the  administration 
will  be  celestial-democratic,  not  satanic  merely,  and 
seek  by  natural  justice  to  organize  things  and  persons 
so  that  all  may  have  a  share  in  labor  and  government. 
Then,  when  freedom  has  money  and  office  to  bestow, 
she  will  become  respectable  in  the  South,  where  noble 
men,  slaveholders  and  non-slaveholders,  will  come  out 
of  their  hiding-places  to  bless  their  land  which  others 
have  cursed  so  heavily  and  so  long.  There  are  anti- 
slavery  elements  at  the  South :  "  One  swallow  makes 
no  summer ;  "  but  one  presidential  summer  of  freedom 
will  bring  many  swallows  out  from  their  wintry  sleep, 
fabulous  or  real.  Nay,  the  ignorant  men  of  the  North 
will  be  instructed;  her  mean  men  will  be  attracted  by 
the  smell  of  dinner ;  and  her  base  men,  left  alone  in  their 
rot,  will  engage  in  other  crime,  but  not  in  kidnapping 
men. 

2.  Kansas  becomes  a  free  State  before  the  1st  of 
January,     1858.     Nebraska,     Oregon,     Washington, 
Utah,   New   Mexico,   all   will   be   free   States.     When 
Texas  sends  down  a  pendulous  branch,  which  takes  in 
dependent  root,  a  tree  of  freedom  will  grow  up  there 
from.     Western  Texas  will  ere  long  be  a  free  State ; 
she  is  half  ready  now.     Freedom  will  be  organized  in 
the  Mesilla  Valley.     If  we  acquire  new  territory  from 
Mexico,  it  will  be  honestly  got,  and  democracy  and 
Christianity     spread    thither.     If    Central    America,, 
Nicaragua,  or  other  new  soil,  become  ours,  it  will  be 
all  consecrated  to  freedom,  and  the  inalienable  rights; 
of  man.     Slavery  will  be  abolished  in  the  District  of 
Columbia. 

3.  There  will  be  no  more  national  attempts  to  de 
stroy  freedom  in  the  North,  but  continual  efforts  to 
restrict  slavery.     The  democratic  parts  of  the  Consti- 


486  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

tution,  long  left  a  dead  letter  therein,  will  be  developed, 
and  the  despotic  clauses,  exceptionable  there,  and 
clearly  hostile  to  its  purpose  and  its  spirit,  will  be 
overruled,  and  forced  out  of  sight,  like  odious  features 
of  the  British  common  law.  There  will  be  a  Pacific 
railroad,  perhaps  more  than  one;  and  national  at 
tempts  will  be  made  to  develop  the  national  resources 
of  the  continent  by  free  labor.  The  South  will  share 
with  the  North  in  this  better  organization  of  things 
and  persons,  this  development  of  industry  and  educa 
tion. 

4.  And  what  will  be  the  future  of  Kansas?     Her 
114,000  square  miles  will  soon  fill  up  with  educated  and 
industrious  men,  each  sharing  the  labor  and  the  gov 
ernment  of  society,  helping  forward  the  welfare  and 
the  progress  of  all,  aiding  the  organization  of  Chris 
tianity   and   democracy.     What   a   development   there 
will   be   of   agriculture,    mining,    manufactures,    com 
merce  1     What   farms   and  shops!     What  canals   and 
railroads!     What  schools,  newspapers,  libraries,  meet 
ing-houses  !     Yes,    what    families    of    rich,    educated, 
happy,  and  religious  men  and  women !     In  the  year 
1900,   there   will  be   2,000,000   men   in   Kansas,   with 
cities  like  Providence,  Worcester,  perhaps  like  Chicago 
and  Cincinnati.     She  will  have  more  miles  of  railroad 
than  Maryland,  Virginia,  and  both  the  Carolinas  can 
now  boast.     Her  land  will  be  worth  $20  an  acre,  and 
her  total  wealth  will  be  $500,000,000  of  money ;  600,- 
000  children  will  learn  in  her  schools. 

5.  There  will  be  a  ring  of  freedom  all  round  the 
slave  States,   and  in  them   slavery   itself  will  decline. 
The  theory  of  bondage  will  be  given  up,  like  the  theory 
of  theocracy  and  monarchy  ;  and  attempts  will  be  made 
to  get  rid  of  the  fact.     Then  the  North  will  help  the 


CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  AFFAIRS        487 

Southern  States  in  that  noble  work.  There  will  never 
be  another  slave  State  nor  another  slave  President ;  no 
more  kidnapping  in  the  North;  no  more  chains  round 
the  court-house  in  Boston ;  no  more  preaching  against 
the  first  principles  of  all  humanity. 

Three  hundred  years  ago,  our  fathers  in  Europe 
were  contending  for  liberty.  Then  it  was  freedom  of 
conscience  which  the  progressive  force  of  the  people 
demanded.  Julius  the  Third  had  just  been  pope,  who 
gave  the  cardinalship,  vacated  at  his  election,  to  the 
keeper  of  his  monkeys;  and  Paul  IV.  sat  in  his  stead 
in  St.  Peter's  chair,  and  represented  in  general  for 
all  Europe  the  regressive  power;  while  Bloody  Mary 
and  bloodier  Philip  sat  on  England's  throne,  and,  in 
cited  thereto  by  the  pontiff,  smote  at  the  rights  of 
man. 

Two  hundred  years  ago,  our  fathers  in  the  two 
Englands  —  old  and  new  —  did  grim  battle  against 
monarchic  despotism :  one  Charles  slept  in  his  bloody 
grave,  another  wandered  through  the  elegant  debauch 
eries  of  the  Continent ;  while  Cromwell  and  Milton  made 
liberal  England  abidingly  famous  and  happy. 

One  hundred  years  ago,  other  great  battling  for  the 
rights  of  man  was  getting  begun.  Ah  me!  the  long- 
continued  strife  is  not  ended.  The  question  laid  over 
by  our  fathers  is  adjourned  to  us  for  settlement.  It 
is  the  old  question  between  the  substance  of  man  and 
his  accidents,  labor  and  capital,  the  people  and  a  caste. 

Shall  the  350,000  slaveholders  own  all  the  1,400,000 
square  miles  of  territory  not  yet  made  States,  and  drive 
all  Northern  men  away  from  it,  or  shall  it  belong  to 
the  people;  shall  this  vast  area  be  like  Arkansas  and 
South  Carolina,  or  like  Michigan  and  Connecticut? 
That  is  the  immediate  question. 


iss  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

Shall  slavery  spread  over  all  the  United  States,  and 
root  out  freedom  from  the  land?  or  shall  freedom 
spread  wide  her  blessed  boughs  till  the  whole  continent 
is  fed  by  her  fruit,  and  lodged  beneath  her  arms  — 
her  very  leaves  for  the  healing  of  the  nations?  That 
is  the  ultimate  question. 

Now  is  the  time  for  America  to  choose  between  these 
two  alternatives,  and  choose  quick.  For  America? 
No,  for  the  North.  You  and  I  are  to  decide  this 
mighty  question.  I  take  it,  the  Anglo-Saxon  will  not 
forego  his  ethnological  instinct  for  freedom;  will  not 
now  break  the  historic  habit  of  two  thousand  years; 
he  will  progressively  tend  to  Christianity  and  democ 
racy  ;  will  put  slavery  down,  peaceably  if  he  can,  forci 
bly  if  he  must. 

We  may  now  end  this  crime  against  humanity  by 
ballots ;  wait  a  little,  and  only  with  swords  and  with 
blood  can  this  deep  and  widening  blot  of  shame  be 
scoured  out  from  the  continent.  No  election,  since 
that  first  and  unopposed  of  Washington,  has  been  so 
important  to  America  as  this  now  before  us.  Once 
the  nation  chose  between  Aaron  Burr  and  Thomas  Jef 
ferson.  When  the  choice  is  between  slavery  and  free 
dom,  will  the  North  choose  wrong?  Any  railroad 
company  may,  by  accident,  elect  a  knave  for  Presi 
dent  ;  but  when  he  has  been  convicted  of  squandering 
their  substance  on  himself,  and  blowing  up  their  en 
gines,  nay,  destroying  their  sons  and  daughters,  will 
the  stockholders  choose  a  swindler  for  ever? 

I  think  we  shall  put  slavery  down;  I  have  small 
doubt  of  that.  But  shall  we  do  it  now  and  without 
tumult,  or  by  and  by  with  a  dreadful  revolution,  San 
Domingo  massacres,  and  the  ghastly  work  of  war? 

Shall  America  decide   for  wickedness, —  extend  the 


CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  AFFAIRS        489 

dark  places  of  the  earth,  filled  up  yet  fuller  with  the 
habitations  of  cruelty?  Then  our  ruin  is  certain, — 
is  also  just.  The  power  of  self-rule,  which  we  were 
not  fit  for,  will  pass  from  our  hands,  and  the  halter  of 
vengeance  will  gripe  our  neck,  and  America  shall  lie 
there  on  the  shore  of  the  sea,  one  other  victim  who 
died  as  the  fool  dieth.  What  a  ruin  it  would  be! 
Come  away  J  I  cannot  look,  even  in  fancy,  on  so  foul 
a  sight. 

If  we  decide  for  the  inalienable  rights  of  man ;  for 
present  welfare,  future  progress ;  for  Christianity  and 
democracy;  and  so  organize  things  and  men  that  all 
may  share  the  labor  and  government  of  society  — 
then  what  a  prospect  is  before  us !  How  populous, 
how  rich,  will  the  land  become !  Ere  long  her  borders 
wide  will  embrace  the  hemisphere  —  how  full  of  men ! 
If  we  are  faithful  to  our  duty,  one  day,  America, 
youngest  of  nations,  shall  sit  on  the  Cordilleras,  the 
youthful  mother  of  the  continent  of  States.  Behind 
her  are  the  Northern  lakes,  the  Northern  forest 
bounded  by  Arctic  ice  and  snow ;  on  her  left  hand 
swells  the  Atlantic,  the  Pacific  on  her  right  —  both 
beautiful  with  the  white  lilies  of  commerce,  giving 
fragrance  all  round  the  world ;  while  before  her  spreads 
out  the  Southern  land,  from  terra  firma  to  the  isles  of 
fire,  blessed  with  the  Saxon  mind  and  conscience,  heart 
and  soul;  and  underneath  her  eye,  into  the  lap  of  the 
hemisphere,  the  Amazon  and  the  Mississippi  —  classic 
rivers  of  freedom  —  pour  the  riches  of  either  continent ; 
and  behind  her,  before  her,  on  either  hand,  all  round, 
and  underneath  her  eye,  extends  the  new  world  of  hu 
manity,  the  commonwealth  of  the  people,  justice,  the 
law  thereof,  and  infinite  perfection,  God;  a  Church 
without  a  bishop,  a  State  without  a  king,  a  community 


490  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

without  a  lord,  a  family  with  no  holder  of  slaves ;  with 
welfare  for  the  present,  and  progress  for  the  future, 
she  will  show  the  nations  how  divine  a  thing  a  people 
can  be  made. 

"  Oh,  well  for  him  whose  will  is  strong ! 
He  suffers,  but  he  will  not  suffer  long; 
He  suffers,  but  he  cannot  suffer  wrong: 
For  him  nor  moves  the  loud  world's  random  mock, 
Nor  all  calamity's  hugest  waves  confound, 
Who  seems  a  promontory  of  rock, 
That,  compassed  round  with  turbulent  sound, 
In  middle  ocean  meets  the  surging  shock, 
Tempest-buffeted,  citadel-crown'd." 


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